Single-handed sailing dinghy Gull

regattarecreational

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". That sail taught me so much, as well as proving I had been a fool and I had got the Gull wrong. I should have known that the man that designed the Wayfarer, Wanderer and over 100 other fantastic boats would also design the Gull to be a special boat. Within a short-time my eyes were opened, the boat felt stable and light on the tiller, it sailed as if it was a much larger boat. I was surprised, amazed and totally sold on this boat. The Gull has the same chined hull as the Wanderer and Wayfarer and is also a very special boat. Next day, a made a phone call to my Naval Architect, Phil Morrison.