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This Alpha training boat is a new generation of rotor-moulded training boats built in the same factory as the rest of the Hartley Boats range and built to last.
With its integral buoyancy tanks, self-draining floor and with a hull weight of just 39kgs this is not a boring boat but is a perfect starter boat for an aspiring novice sailor but, being rotor-moulded it will stand the knocks and bumps during the learning stage.
Design a small boat just for training, design it to be the very best 10ft training dinghy in the world. Visit 35 Sailing Clubs and Sailing Centres to find out their requirements for a training boat, visit Holiday Sailing Schools and get their list of requirements then combine together and produce a list of priorities to be achieved from the new boat.
Employ the best Naval Architect in the UK, Phil Morrison and back that up with an unlimited budget. From our research the same priority list was repeated time and time again by many of the Training Centres.
What came back was they wanted a STABLE boat that gives confidence to any novice sailor with comfortable seating, plenty of leg room, a dry cockpit, high boom, an easy to reef sail and a boat that that would handle well in big seas.
Design a sailing dinghy just for training, design it to be the very best 12ft (3.65m) training dinghy in the world.
We visited 35 sailing clubs and sailing centres to find out their requirements for a training boat, we also visited holiday sailing schools to get their list of requirements and then combined together and produced a list of priorities to be achieved from the new boat.
Employ the best Naval Architect in the UK, Phil Morrison and back that up with an unlimited budget. From our research the same priority list was repeated time and time again by many of the training centres.
Design a sailing dinghy just for training, design it to be the very best 12ft (3.65m) training dinghy in the world.
We visited 35 sailing clubs and sailing centres to find out their requirements for a training boat, we visited holiday sailing schools to get their list of requirements then combined together and produced a list of priorities to be achieved from the new boat.
We employed the best Naval Architect in the UK, Phil Morrison and backed that up with an unlimited budget. From our research the same priority list was repeated time and time again by many of the training centres.
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.
The big question on Hartley Boats agenda, could we improve this already very successful training boat? This outstanding training dinghy, was already used by many of the UK’s leading training schools and sailing clubs, together with many holiday companies.
The answer was, YES, with new technology and the best Naval Architect Phil Morrison on board and with the will and determination to make this training sailing dinghy even better. This then would deliver even better training results! No changes to the hull, the chined built Wanderer is the most STABLE dinghy of its size class in the world. You can even stand two adults on the side-deck without the boat capsizing. No change to the hull but, we would reduce the buoyancy in the side-tanks as with many other dinghy’s far too much buoyancy makes the centreboard float too high, making it difficult to right after capsize.
The big question on Hartley Boats agenda was, could we improve this already very successful training boat? This outstanding training dinghy was already used by many of the UK’s 1,700 leading training schools and sailing clubs together with many holiday companies.
The answer was, YES, with new technology and the best naval Architect Phil Morrison on board and with the will and determination to make this the number one training sailing dinghy even better. This then would deliver even better training results. No changes to the hull, the chined built Wayfarer is the most STABLE dinghy of its size class in the world. You can even stand two adults on the side-deck without the boat capsizing. No change to the hull, but we would reduce the buoyancy in the side tanks, as with many other dinghies, far too much buoyancy makes the centreboard float too high and it is difficult to right after capsize.
