Gull History

The Gull sailing dinghy was designed by Ian Proctor in 1956. He built the first prototype boat (Jolly Roger) to teach his own children how to sail.

Mark One

The original mk1 boat was produced as a Kit by Smallcraft of Blockley. The MK1 was all wood, designed as a frameless double chine dinghy with two buoyancy tanks built in, one in the bow and one in the stern. The mast had two positions, one for sailing with a mainsail and jib and one for single handed jib less sailing. The MK1 originally had a Gunter rig.

A GRP version of the MK1 was produced in 1966 but as this was an exact copy of the wooden boat it was difficult to build.

Mark Two

A Mark two was introduced as a cheaper more easily manufactured GRP version. It didn't have a permanent fore deck instead having a canvas cover that could be removed. The Mark 2 was never very popular and the Mark1 continued being produced as a timber kit.

Mark Three

The Mark 3 made an appearance in 1971 (or the late 1970's starting with number 1800 if you believe wikipedia) . It was a radical redesign having a round bilge hull, greater beam (by 6 inches) and side decks makeing her mored comfortable to sail in a blow. The second mast point was removed meaning that it had to be sailed with Main and Jib. The Mark 3 reintroduced the deck but lost the fixed stern storage area, though allowance was made for a removable storage area large enough to store an outboard when not in use.