permitted only every three years, jibs every two years. Haul-outs will be 

 limited. Besides the twelve gift boats, Shields will have one of his own. 

 The builder is the experienced Cape Cod Shipbuilding Company (Ware- 

 ham, Mass. ). It is expected that the price range will be in the neighborhood 

 of $7500 and that the boats will be ready by the fall of 1962. 



VITAL statistics: L.O. a. 3o'2i/^"; waterline 20'; beam 6'4''; 

 draft (keel) 4'9''; sail area 382 sq. ft. (spinnaker used); weight 4200 to 

 4500 lbs. 



SIX METER 



While the Six Meter class has been to a considerable extent superseded 

 by the 5.5 Meter Class on account of the expense, a number of them are 

 still sailing and the class has too important a history to be omitted here. 

 Like the other "meter boats" this is a development class, first launched in 

 the United States in 1921 after many years of racing in European waters. 

 Of the first four boats built for American use, two were designed by W. 

 Starling Burgess and two by William Gardner. The boats were planned 

 for international competition and some of our greatest racing sailors, in- 

 cluding C. Sherman Hoyt, Cornelius Shields, and Briggs Cunningham, were 

 active in the class. 



The Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club of Oyster Bay, New York, was 

 the leader in sponsoring the Sixes and cooperated with four British clubs 

 in planning for team races. Wliile boats designed by Clinton H. Crane, 

 such as Lanai, dominated early competition in the class, Sixes designed by 

 Olin J. Stephens and A. E. Luders, Jr., came later into the picture. Inter- 

 national competition was not limited to contests with the EngUsh; there 

 were also races with crews from Cuba, Bermuda, Scotland, and Norway. 

 The boats have always been considered primarily an international class. 

 The famous Seawanhaka Cup was raced for by Six Meters as early as 1922. 



During their history the Six Meter boats, being a development class under 

 the International Rule, have undergone considerable change. "In the early 

 days," says Bill Taylor,* "designers experimented with wide boats, narrow 

 boats, deep boats, centerboard boats, long boats, short boats, light boats 

 and heavy boats. Gradually they evolved a type from which only minor 

 variations were considered worth experimenting with." 



VITAL STATISTICS are so varied as to make an attempt to list all of 

 them meaningless. The latest boats were in the general range of L.O.A. 37'; 

 waterline 23'9''; beam 6'; draft s's"; sail area 460 sq. ft.; displacement 9500 

 lbs. 



* "The 'Sixes' Sail Again," by William H. Taylor, Yachting, June 1947 — to which I owe 

 much of the material for this section. 



180 THE SAILBOAT CLASSES OF NORTH AMERICA 



