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CHAPTER 



What Is A One-Design or Class Boat? 



The term "one-design" for sailboats means that all 

 boats of that class have been constructed to the same set of specifications 

 and measurements. In other words, each boat in a class is as similar to its 

 sister ship in sailing characteristics and dimensions as possible. This means 

 that, within a class, success in racing depends upon the skill of the skipper 

 rather than upon his ability to pay for expensive refinements built into 

 his craft. It also means you may race in competition on an even basis- 

 no handicap system required— almost anywhere that you find a group 

 with boats of your class. 



The fun, thrills and the sport that await the one-design sailor are 

 boundless. Mostly they are involved with racing, Americans being born 

 competitors. A one-design race is highly organized, with a set of rules 

 that have been distilled from centuries of experience in seas crowded 

 with sail. Good boatmen with well-tuned boats and sailing skill win. In 

 the one-designs age and sex has nothing to do with winning of race. 

 Sailors win the championship of their fleet and go on to win the cham- 

 pionship of their district and then the national crown— and, in some of 

 the one-design classes, the international. A student or office boy in his late 

 teens can find himself sailing for the championship of the world in his 

 class in Rio de Janeiro or Naples or Tokyo or in the Olympic games. 



Successful sailboat racing is more than a sport. While you do not obtain 

 the speed that you do in outboard racing, it is an art which challenges 

 both the body and the mind of those who seek to excel in it. For the keen- 

 est competitors (both experts and enthusiastic beginners) it is the greatest 

 fun on earth. Just a generation ago sailboating was known as the sport of 

 millionaires. One didn't have to have a title to get into the act, but a 

 small fortune was a virtual necessity, for those were the days when the 



