The ''Wanderer'' is a 14-foot (4.3 metres = 14.1 feet)

Fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

hull Bermuda rigged

sailing dinghy Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using five essential controls: * the sails * the foils (i.e. the daggerboard or centreboard and rudder and sometimes lifting foils as found on the Moth) * the trim (forward/rear angle o ...

Ian Proctor Ian Douglas Ben Proctor (12 July 1918 – 23 July 1992) was a British designer of boats, both sailing dinghies and cruisers. He had more than one hundred designs to his credit, from which an estimate of at least 65,000 boats were built. His pion ...

. One of the main objectives of the design was to produce a robust safe and versatile dinghy that could be used for knockabout day sailing and cruising as well as racing, but was light enough to be handled ashore. On the water the boat can be recognised by its Sail

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...

of a white W in a blue circular background. Over 1600 boats have been produced. It should not be confused with its larger cousin, the

Wayfarer (dinghy) The Wayfarer is a wooden or fibreglass hulled fractional Bermuda rigged sailing dinghy of great versatility; used for short 'day boat' trips, longer cruises and for racing. Over 11,000 have been produced as of 2016. The boat is long, and broa ...

, which also sports a "W".The "Wanderer" is named for

Frank Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curr ...

and Margaret Dye's first Wayfarer.

Design

The initial design brief was given to Ian Proctor by Margaret Dye who wanted a lighter dinghy than the '' Wayfarer'' that she had sailed with her husband Frank. Margaret and the late

Frank Dye Frank Charles Dye (23 April 1928 – 16 May 2010) was a sailor who, in two separate voyages, sailed a ''Wayfarer'' class dinghy from the United Kingdom to Iceland and Norway. An account of this was written by Dye and his wife, Margaret, publish ...

had a wealth of dinghy cruising experience, and their adventures have been captured in Margaret's book ''Dinghy Cruising – The Enjoyment of Wandering Afloat''. . The ''Wanderer'' has

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

and

Jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsail ...

sails; it can also be fitted with a Spinnaker. Reefing of the main sail is by slab reefing. The jib can be fitted with a roller furling system. The boat is by design an aft main boat rather than a center main boat, although often converted to center main. It has high intrinsic stability, and the normal wooden centreplate can be replaced with an steel centre board which makes it even harder to

capsize Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel fro ...

. The relatively light weight of the boat contributes to its ease of launching and recovery. The design allows for fitting of a long shafted

outboard motor An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method ...

of up to 3.3 hp. There is very ample storage and on Pre-Hartley built hulls an in built waterproof locker, or "Wanderbox", for storage of the outboard motor when not in use. The ''Wanderer'' dinghy design and construction has evolved during the years of manufacture, one of the most significant early changes was the introduction of the MD modification. This was a modification to the distribution of buoyancy resulting in a reduction in the floating height of the boat after a capsize thus aiding recovery (and propitiously making the boat less likely to turn turtle). In 2006 Hartley Laminates took over the copyright and manufacturing licence for the design. They secured the services of Phil Morrison to redesign the deck plug to modernise the appearance of the boat, allow the hull to self drain through transom flaps and to reduce the complexity of building the hull and thus production costs while retaining the same hull shape and rig.

Class Association

The ''Wanderer'' has an active class owners' association (WCOA) which is based in the UK and is responsible for maintaining the class rule

The WCOA organises racing and cruising events all over the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

including an annual Festival; ''WandererFest'', which has been held at Cobnor near

Chidham_and_Hambrook Chidham and Hambrook is a civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located approximately five miles (8 km) west of Chichester, south of the A27 road, near Bosham. Chidham is the ecclesiastical Parish, with a slig ...

for the last 10 years. The associatio
website
hosts all the details of the class rules, constitution, boat history, technical details an
events
The association also publishes a magazine three times a year of news of the Owners' Association.

Notes

References

External links

UK Wanderer Class Association
* https://www.hartleyboats.com * https://www.parallel45marine.com/ {{Sailing Dinghies and Skiffs Dinghies Boats designed by Ian Proctor