Single-handed sailing dinghy Contender

regatta

The desire to have the best range of single-handed boats in the Hartley stable came true when we were offered the build rights, moulds, tooling and patterns for the Contender. We were disappointed that unlike other classes we could not buy the copyright and be fully in charge over future policy and the destination for the Contender. With other Contender builders throughout the World, would we be able to sell our boats and compete? We were happy with selling the boat into the UK market but the challenge to allow the Contender sailors to choose the boat of their choice gave us a challenge. In a very short time, we agreed a deal. Just to have an already fantastic range of single-hander boats, the Byte, Supernova, Blaze and now the World’s best single-hander trapeze boat, the Contender, would make the whole team very proud. We decided not to compete but to design and build the World’s best Contender that sailors would want to buy if they wanted to win championships. To achieve this goal, we would need two important commodities. The first, no budget set for the boat cost and whatever we have to spend, we would spend it. The second, a Naval Architect that is good enough to design, oversee the patterns, moulds and tooling being built, then organise the boat build procedures to ensure the boat reaches its potential, ensuring the quality and durability of the boat is to Hartley Boats standard and reputation. Fortunately, Peter Hobson one of the best Naval Architects jumped at the opportunity and was 100% convinced he could not only design and build a great Contender but a boat that could win the World Championship