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We were very excited, not only would we have a small single-handed race boat with an established Byte Class Association with a full training and racing calendar but, a boat that was raced throughout the world.
A boat that would fit our requirements with a helm weight range of between 55kgs and 75kgs. Even better, with a simple change of bottom section of the mast and a change to the small sail, you now have the ideal boat for helms with a weight between 35kgs to 65kgs.
We were very excited, not only would we have a small single-handed race boat with an established Byte Class Association with a full training and racing calendar but, a boat that was raced throughout the world.
A boat that would fit our requirements with a helm weight range of between 55kgs and 75kgs. Even better, with a simple change of bottom section of the mast and a change to the small sail, you now have the ideal boat for helms with a weight between 35kgs to 65kgs.
To say Hartley Boats were pleased to add the Gull to our existing range would be a lie. When we bought the Wayfarer and Wanderer copyrights from the Proctor family, Roger asked me “do you want the Gull?”. The response for this 11ft (3.35m) little boat which I had seen many times in different locations was, “not for us, this was not a boat I have aspirations to build”. Again, Roger insisted it was a great boat, sells well and sails fantastic, you should take it. Reluctantly we did, we bought the tooling and produced and sold Gulls for several months.
Unlike both the Wayfarer and Wanderer, we did not re-design the boat to avoid spending the many thousands of £’s involved in producing patterns, moulds and templates needed when you produce a new boat, no, not for this average boat! All this changed, the day we delivered and completed a handover of a Gull to a new owner at a Sailing Club. "Come and sail with me it’s a great day, good winds and I am a novice sailor, I would enjoy you helming my new boat".
This new generation of rotor-moulded boat has been designed by Phil Morrison not only to last the rigours of time but to be the most outstanding 10ft (3.04 m) dingy ever designed, with unique sailing benefits and qualities to become in time a world leader.
This was no small challenge but became even worse when Hartley Boats presented the list of requirements they wanted to be incorporated into his design and benefit list.
The remit was to build the most STABLE 10ft (3.04m) dinghy being the number one priority on the list of requirements, with comfortable seating to cater for all age groups, a dry cockpit and self-draining floor.
This new generation of rotor-moulded boat has been designed by Phil Morrison not only to last the rigours of time but to be the most outstanding 12ft (3.65m) dinghy ever designed with unique sailing benefits and qualities to become, in time a world leader.
This was no small challenge but became even worse when Hartley Boats presented the list of requirements they wanted to be incorporated into his design and benefit list.
The remit was to build the most STABLE 12ft (3.65m) dinghy being the number one priority on the list of requirements, with a centreboard fitted instead of the dagger board as used by other manufacturers would be a great advantage, with comfortable seating and a dry cockpit and a self-draining floor.
This new generation of rotor-moulded boat has been designed by Phil Morrison not only to last the rigours of time but to be the most outstanding 12ft (3.65m) dinghy ever designed, with unique sailing benefits and qualities to become in time a world leader.
This was no small challenge but became even worse when Hartley Boats presented the list of requirements and benefit list they wanted to be incorporated into his design.
The remit was, build the most STABLE 12ft (3.65m) dinghy being the number one priority on the list of requirements, with a centreboard fitted instead of the dagger board as used by other manufacturers would be a great advantage with comfortable seating, a dry cockpit and a self-draining floor.
This was Hartley Boats hardest decision, would a similar sized boat to the Wayfarer affect the long -term sustainability of the Wayfarer’s future?
After many discussions we decided to go ahead with this 15.5ft (4.7m) rotor-moulded boat and in fact, we decided to look at its competitors first. The Wayfarer, the number one training boat found throughout the Country and shipped all over the world, together with the other rotor-moulded successful training boats.
We had the test results from the Wayfarer but needed to test and sail other rotor training boats to find out their strengths and weaknesses. After several months of testing we had our list of strengths and three difficult problems we needed to overcome. Having talked to many sailing schools, their general opinion was that when the boat was capsized the centreboard was too high making it difficult to right the boat in big winds, the shrouds flex and then load the genoa with far too much power, making it very difficult to control. Finally, a large rotor-moulded boat with large flat surfaces after several years of work, numerous cracks appeared.
Over 20 years ago Hartley Boats were lucky enough to be offered a single-handed race dinghy. With no other-single hander racing boat in our stable, we jumped at the chance to buy the copyright, moulds and tooling for the Supernova.
As many Supernovas were sold each year the class was well supported and we immediately believed if we were to invest in new designs and tooling, we could make this boat into a very special and successful racing class.
After six months of rigorous testing and sailing the boat, we produced a list of changes and improvements we wanted to make to the original boat. We were by this time lucky enough to have worked with Phil Morrison our Naval Architect on other boats and he confirmed that he would be pleased to work with us on the Supernova.
I first got involved with the Wanderer having just bought the Copyright from the Proctor family. I was asked by the builder to attend a committee meeting with the Wanderer Class Association. At this meeting the whole committee raised their concerns regarding the build of the new version of the Wanderer and many of the committee were not happy with the new boat.
The main areas of discontent were the floor, which was very slippery. The boat was difficult to right after capsize and it came up full of water, this made the boat difficult to handle in heavy winds. In short, it was not a very good first meeting, “what had I bought?” I had spent thousands of £’s buying the Copyright, the patterns, moulds and tooling to now be told I had bought a bad boat.
Why does Hartley Boats believe that the Wayfarer is the best 16ft (4.88m) dinghy in the world? Simply because this is the most STABLE sailing dinghy of its size ever built.
The only dinghy that you can stand two adults on the side deck and the boat will still not capsize, this is due to the best dinghy Naval Architect in the world at the time Ian Proctor. His vision, to build the hull in a chined style method and to incorporate stability characteristics that would be unique and set this boat apart from all the other dinghies at the time of build and for many years to come. With a proven track record of over sixty years.
Successfully sailed in eighteen countries throughout the world, used by over 1,700 sailing schools, training centres and by many holiday sailing schools, with nearly 12,000 boats sold throughout the world. The only sailing dinghy to sail from the UK waters to Denmark, with numerous channel crossings and just last year three Wayfarers circumnavigated completely round the UK. This is a very special boat and we at Hartley Boats are very proud to be the builder.
