ZEPHYR. 

 Photo by 

 Signe Allen. 



skippers to keep from capsizing. They arrived at the Oakland Airport dock 

 soaking wet— and cold. 



"Huddled against the lee side of the shack on the dock, they dreamed of 

 a boat that, like the El Toro, could be sailed single handed, but would 

 stand up to the worst that San Francisco Bay could churn up. It would 

 have to be a keel boat. It should be simple to build and repair . . . , easy 

 to launch and rig . . . , trail easily. . . . Above all, it would have to be 

 fast." 



Evidently the result was a rather long jump from the Toros, which are 7' 

 10" long, for the boat Ed Thrall designed (assisted by Jack Freitag) was 

 20 feet over-all, and so much like C. Raymond Hunt's 110 Class (which 

 came nearest to their requirements) that at a distance it would be difficult 

 for the inexperienced to tell them apart. By 1949 the class had begun and 

 the boats were racing. There are now about ninety-one of them— on San 

 Francisco Bay. The boats are fast, though not a planing type, very narrow, 



RACING CLASSES 



215 



