A 50 foot Ketch (two masts) especially built for sail training, she can turn sun into energy, provide food and shelter, travel for weeks on end without visiting a dock and best of all, be a place that many people can call home (whilst enjoying their unique sailing experience).
Hardiesse was launched in 1972 after Joe Feather commissioned Percy Dalton to design a purpose-built sail training vessel, keeping the sails small enough to be handled by lightweight crews and with a number of sails to give experience in different ways of driving the ship.
Hardiesse was built of ferro-cement. The hull was completed professionally by Stan Goldman in the shadow of Ponsanooth viaduct. The completed hull was then transported by Pickfords Removers to the water at Penryn (a somewhat epic journey)! Once at Penryn, the fitting-out was completed entirely by the crew of the time and past members.
Parts came from other vessels, new blocks from Canada, and so on. The nameplate “Hardiesse” was carved out by Joe Feather himself, and in Breton French Hardiesse means “Boldness”.