This is primarily a trainer for children, used chiefly on the East Coast of the 

 United States and made of plywood, though they can be fiber-glass covered. 

 An active National Turnabout Association guides class affairs and publishes 

 a handbook. Bradford L. Jones is Secretary (Cloutman's Lane, Marble- 

 head, Mass.). 



It all got started late in December 1949, when some members of the 

 Ipswich Bay Yacht Club, anxious to find a small boat fast enough to buck 

 a 4-knot current in Plum Island Sound and safe enough to ride a tide rip, 

 gathered to try out the first Turnabout. Mary Hogan of Andover had guar- 

 anteed to buy the first boat for her nine-year-old daughter, Polly, and had 

 asked her noted uncle, John G. Alden, to be on hand to watch the demon- 

 stration. Alden had already made helpful suggestions to Harold Turner. The 

 trial was a success and the career of the Turnabouts had begun. 



The boat is strictly one-design and has been used in many junior pro- 

 grams, camps, etc. The famous brigantine Yankee carried a Turnabout on 

 a voyage around the world, as a recreation boat for skipper and crew. Price 

 is about $400 for a new boat, $300 for a used one or kit. 



VITAL statistics: L.O.A. 9'8"; waterline 8'/'; beam $'3''; draft 

 without centerboard 6", with C.B. 3'; sail area 60 sq. ft.; weight 225 lbs.; 

 trailable. 



TWELVE METER 



This class is important, not because of the number of boats now active, 

 but because it has recently been the class selected for the America's Cup 

 Races. Though thirty-five 12 Meter boats were built in Europe between 

 1907 and 1914, the class was not introduced into the United States until 

 1928, when six boats designed in America by Burgess, Bigg and Morgan, 

 and built in Germany by Abeking and Rasmussen, began sailing on Long 

 Island Sound. While the 12 Meter class is a development class, with the 

 opportunity of variation controlled by restrictions too complicated to at- 

 tempt to explain here ( even if I could ) , these early boats were 69V over-all; 

 42^11" on the waterline; with a beam of i2'8"; draft of 8'$"; and a sail area 

 of 1970 square feet. 



A Third International Rule was drafted in 1933 to become effective on 

 January 1, 1936. Between 1933 and 1939 six 12 Meters were built in the 

 United States: Seven Seas and Gleam (designed by Clinton Crane); Mitena 

 (designed by L. Francis Herreshoff); Nyala, Northern Light, and Vim (de- 

 signed by Sparkman and Stephens ) . In 1939 Vim was raced successfully in 

 England, proving to be probably the fastest 12 Meter built up to that time. 



200 THE SAILBOAT CLASSES OF NORTH AMERICA 



