Wayfarer History
Wayfarer on Wikipedia
The marine yacht designer Ian Proctor of Hamble on the south coast in the United Kingdom, designed many high performance dinghies during the early nineteen-fifties: National 12; National Merlin Rocket; International 14; National Osprey and Kestrel. And for his family he produced a little dinghy called Gull with a double chine. It proved extremely popular and grew into a class with over 2,000 boats. Out of this came a request for something larger, about 16′ in the same construction, a craft that could accept the demands made by English coastal sailing and moorings that dry out. In short, what was required was a tough, stable craft that would take the ground without damage and was cheaper to build than the then current lapstrakes.
Small Craft Boats of Southampton were prepared to build such a dinghy with specifications appropriate to the standard manufactured size of ply mahogany. In 1956 came the drawings and prototype of the first Wayfarer. The initial trials suggested, among other modifications, that the freeboard should be increased a bit (which is why some trouble is experienced in rowing) and the subsequent models resulted in the familiar hull in wood or fibreglas that we know today.
Proctor incorporated leak-proof buoyancy/stowage fore and aft, and precisely designed aft side-benches that could be transferred to thwartships in order to accommodate children overnight. This dinghy turned out to be not only an excellent day-sailer but a lively race craft and a long-distance cruiser as well.
This most kindly of dinghies made her debut in Canada in 1958 and was subsequently built here under licence by Croce and Lofthouse of Toronto, then Whitby Boatworks, Windbourne, Voiliers de Québec and now Abbott of Sarnia.
During the nineteen-seventies and eighties, further modifications made in the fibreglas models resulted in the Mks. II and III: solid buoyancy forward with open shelf stowage, and a double-hull configuration in the cockpit. The extraordinary feats performed by this dinghy in different parts of the world have been dealt with at great length elsewhere. Enough to say she is the most popular and versatile craft of her size to be found anywhere, whether for picnics, racing or long-distance voyages.
There are nearly 9,000 Wayfarers throughout the world with 1,200 in Canada and 400 in the United States. In the United Kingdom alone there are over 6,000 because nearly all the national sailing schools and private boat clubs use it for training purposes. There are others in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East.
Ken Elliott March 1990
