... is there anyone who can provide a succinct overview of how well the Mark IVs have fit into the Wayfarer scene - cruising and especially racing - in their first active year? People have asked me this and will likely raise the matter at our AGM. I know that the Hartleys, father and son, won the UK Nationals, but is that a sign of a faster boat? How have other Mk IVs done? Will copy the usual suspects plus others who may have a comment??

I, too, would wish to endorse your very positive impressions of the Mk 4 Hartley Wayfarer. We purchased ours at the end of the traditional 'Circuit season' and have had the opportunity to race against other good Wayfarer sailors only a couple of times.

We have however raced it in a very competitive handicap fleet and have been delighted by our experiences. We put the boat together exactly as Richard and Mark Hartley recommended. We raced her in our first sail; it was a disaster because I sailed straight over the spinnaker at our first drop! This was because I had not taken in the slack on the downhaul before beginning the drop into the shute. Since then we have found the spinnaker much quicker and easier to use than we had hoped, gaining us crucial boatlengths over the length of a race and giving us much more confidence to fly the kite in those tight reach situations especially where a throw round was required previously.Those horrendous 'hourglass twists' which take forever to sort are pretty much a thing of the past.

We have raced against Robin and June Barker a couple of times....they are very good Wayfarer sailors! The Mk4 seemed to go better upwind and to Robin's frustration, his strong point, downwind sailing in their boat Chough did not see him overhaul us as he would previously have expected when racing against us in both the Plus  'S' and woodies we have had.

I think we must acknowledge the Mk 4 is quick to plane and then holds it for longer than our previous boats. For me, and key to my enjoyment of the boat is its amazing stability and assured handling, especially when going really fast offwind. I don't get the feeling I used to, of a boat with too small a rudder and a critical mass which if I oversteered one way or another too much, the boat would take over and go its own way, usually on to its side. The Mk 4 is very positive and goes where you want it to without any tendency to take over. 

We love the comfortable hiking position, we love the amount of room in the boat, the fact we can get well forward in the light stuff, in comfort. We love the absence of a bucket, and yes we have capsized twice now. On one occasion, we were up and away with all three sails and drained out quickly enough to go from first to last and back up to fourth before getting to the finish. In the old boats, we would have been race over, DNF. On the second occasion, in a vicious Force 6/7, we were blown over with several other boats around us (huge gust), and with wind against tide, stuck the mast into the mud. The mast gave up. The Hartleys had a new one down to us, from Derby to Devon, by the end of the week, so we were able to carry on and win the series by sailing that weekend. Well done to them! We also love the fact that the rigging systems all work so well.

Put simply, the Mk 4 Wayfarer is the best boat we have ever owned. We have had RS 400, various Merlins, Hornets, Dart 18,  and seven previous Wayfarers including most of the designs. Our new Wayfarer seems to give us the best bits of all the others and more. Granted we are not as lithe as we used to be, but this is an exciting and very competitive boat. We regularly cross the line in front of several sailors who are used to winning in other fleets, and now racing in the RS 200 fleet, they wonder why a 'Waybarge' is getting to the finish before them. We have always done very well in our Wayfarer at the club and won several major handicap events in the past, but always underperformed at the Wayfarer Open Meetings we have staged there. Our Handicap colleagues are chuntering, we seem to be going very well! But as yet, the jury is out on whether our current good form is down to our renewed enthusiasm, competence and excellent teamwork, or is it down to the boat???

Phil Morrison has done exactly what his design brief intended, and in our view he has done a great job. It would be difficult to see how to develop the Wayfarer in any better way, given design constraints, and at the same time produce a boat which has to be the best chance for the class to remain contemporary, without losing the original concept.

Roll on next season. We are longing to get back out in decent sailing weather and just enjoy competing with our Wayfarer friends again. We are especially looking forward to the Falmouth Nationals. This boat could have been made for just such a location.

Liam
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