since 1887, for this is the oldest sailboat racing class in the United States.* 

 On August 27, 1957, a fleet of twenty-eight North Haven dinghies held 

 their seventieth-anniversary regatta, thus establishing a record matched 

 by no other sailing class in America. 



Dr. C. G. Weld is said to have been the designer, and Henry Calderwood, 

 a local carpenter, built two dinghies with spritsails in 1884. More dinghies 

 were soon built and in 1887 the first formal Grand Dinghy Race was run 

 at North Haven. By that time the boats had acquired gaff rigs. In that 

 first race, according to "Age before Beauty" {Yachting, July 1952), the 

 T. D., owned by Tucker Deland and sailed by Dr. Weld, had a lufiing 

 match with Gharles K. Gobb's dinghy, which enabled Guffin, owned by 

 Alfred Bowditch and sailed by Miss Ellen Hayward, to win. In view of 

 the fact that it wasn't until years later that the female sex won recognition 

 as skippers on other waters, it is interesting to note that the first winner 

 of the first recorded race of an essentially one-design class was won by a 

 girl, later to become Mrs. Henry Wheeler and the winner of many other 

 dinghy races. 



In about 1920 John G. Alden took off the lines of the North Haven din- 

 ghy Kidozo and made up a construction detail drawing from which all 

 future dinghies were built. Our "vital statistics" are based on these draw- 

 ings. To quote an authority: 



"One reason for the continued popularity of the class is the manner in 

 which it is kept strictly one-design. No one is permitted trick gadgets, no 

 revolving masts, no ballast shifting (6 lbs. of lead on the long oak center- 

 board and 350 lbs. of inside ballast) during the 24 hours preceding a race, 

 no pot-leading— in short, no finagling." 



In 1948 "an experienced small-boat sailor 'gal' from Gonnecticut, while 

 on vacation in the islands, bought one of the North Haven dinghies and 

 brought her down to Greenwich, where she entered her in the annual 

 Greenwich Day free-for-all race. To everyone's surprise she finished ahead 

 of the fleet. Last year (1951) the same boat, sailed by the new owner, 

 again won the Greenwich Day Race, beating every entry boat for boat, 

 including Hurricanes, Thistles ^ and an L-16. You just have to hand it to 

 those North Haven dinghies. They must have something." 



I sailed in one of them belonging to Mrs. Wheeler, a redoubtable dinghy 

 racer, many years ago, and I agree. 



* In the April 1959 issue of Yachting, in connection with an article by Samuel C. Slaughter 

 ("Three Score and Ten"), there appears the following Editor's Note regarding the North 

 Haven Yacht Club dinghy class: "Months of research by the Yachting editorial staff substanti- 

 ate the fact that this is indeed the oldest sailboat racing class in America." My thanks to Sam 

 Slaughter for his help on this history. 



146 THE SAILBOAT CLASSES OF NORTH AMERICA 



