Happy Anniversary! Not only is it the 1st of December but more importantly it is the 1 year anniversary for Team Freya Black & Saskia Tidey joining forces with the wonderful team at GRP Boat Repairs. Where has the time gone… 365 days ago we were presented with an opportunity to sit with Julian and his team at the GRP headquarters where we shared our vision and goal, to represent Great Britain at Paris 2024. We were welcomed into the office at Universal Marina with open arms and shared our story as a fresh new pairing ready to take on the world. We soon learned we shared similar values and ..read more

Team Black Tidey 49er FX Staying In the Loop – July-September 2022 KIEL INTO THE EUROPEANS We arrived in rainy Kiel (classic!) excited to get back into racing after a few months at home. Unfortunately, on day 1 of racing Freya came down with Covid and our warm up event for the Euros was cut short. Our lead into the Europeans didn’t quite go how we imagined after this, with Freya stuck in bed and Sas having to do all the hard graft to make sure the boat was ready for the event. We managed to get on the water for 45 minutes before the start of the event (carefully managing Freya’s tiredness) a ..read more

Pascoe-6.2 Pascoe 6.2Download your copy The post PASCOE 6.2 – DOUBLE QUICK-TIME UPGRADE AND REFURBISHMENT appeared first on GRP Boat Repair Specialists ..read more

Team Black Tidey 49er FX Staying In the Loop – May-June 2022 Time at home! Since we got back from Hyeres, we have based ourselves in the UK. 8 weeks has flown by with some pretty long days of hard work for us, getting two race boats ready, fitness block and sailing on the new kit. Two new race boats- welcome to the team Ginny and Kate! With our hard hats and high vis jackets, we unloaded our new boat from New Zealand! The boat went straight to ZEST Racing Boatyard to have the GRP logo sprayed on which turned out incredible! We then had to get it ready to sail… sounds a lot easier than it is ..read more

Team Black Tidey 49er FX Staying In the Loop- April 2022 2 International regattas this month and our first sail on the new rigs – a pretty full on month with a ton of learning! PALMA REGATTA We headed back out to Palma for a lead into our first international event together. After a few days of training on our goals (especially some windy gybing that came in very handy for the event!) we were very excited to get racing, with of course a few nerves added in. Our goals for the event/ focuses on to debrief: Starting: Holding station under pressure, Triggers, Settle success Comms around the racec ..read more

Team Black Tidey 49er FX Staying In the Loop- March 2022 Where has the time gone! Two years since we were last in Palma Mallorca due to COVID 19. It is one of our favourite venues with rich turquoise blue water and varied wind strengths. For Saskia this will be her 10th Princess Sofia regatta and for Freya this will be her Palma debut. New venue & new goals: Communication- It is important to us to nail down the early stages of how we communicate effectively as a team. How, when & why we say what we say is vital to be accountable for our actions onboard. We have focused the majority o ..read more

Team Black Tidey 49er FX Staying In the Loop- February 2022 It has been a busy but productive month onboard our GRP 49er FX! Since our last update we have been based in Lanzarote for three boat handling camps and competed at our first regatta as Team Black/Tidey. Boat handling has been our primary goal for the past two months. Unlike a lot of other dinghy’s the 49er skiff is quite difficult to manoeuvre and slows the boat speed down vastly. It is hard to perfect but we strive to make ourselves as adaptable as possible to keep the boat moving fast through the water when changing direction. Cam ..read more

Team Black Tidey 49er FX Staying In the Loop – January 2022 Welcome to the first of Team Freya Black & Saskia Tidey sailing news letter. It is very exciting to join the team at GRP Boat Repairs and announce our official campaign to qualify Great Britain for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Thanks to the support of the GRP,RYA British sailing team and UK sport we can begin moving forward towards our goal. Winning medals for Great Britain in the 49er FX skiff. We started our journey together in November 2021. Freya transitioned from the mixed Olympic 470 class to the 49er FX double handed woman ..read more

Recruiting a GRP Finisher in Southampton/Hamble Established in 1992, GRP Boat Repair Specialist Ltd is owned and led by Julian Willmott. His experience in the yachting industry dates back to over 40 years and includes work both in the UK and abroad. We are currently seeking an experienced GRP finisher who has worked on a variety of yachts, ideally up to Super Yacht standard. Applicants require a minimum of 2 years experience and an excellent understanding and knowledge of the maritime industry. As a highly-skilled finisher you will need to work to short deadlines and take responsibility for pr ..read more

Testing Testing Testing No, we are not talking about telephones. We are talking about the rules and regulations which, quite rightly, have been imposed on all of us to ensure that Covid does not get the upper hand. GRP is an international business and as such our engineers and specialists have to be safe themselves but also ensure that they are not a threat to the safety of others. As we write this, GRP has teams of engineers and specialists in Cyprus and Spain. To be able to carry out this work safely Julian and the team adhere to a stringent regime of frequent testing and certificati ..read more