Optimist dinghy
The box-shaped dinghy in which the world’s children learn to sail.
Major Clifford McKay of the Optimist Club in Clearwater, Florida, wanted children to be able to sail for little money. In 1947 the boatbuilder Clark Mills designed a dinghy that could be built of plywood in an ordinary garage.
The plans spread to Scandinavia in the 1950s and then around the world. The Optimist is now one of the most sailed boats in the world, and many Olympic sailors started in one.
Materials: Plywood; later glass-reinforced plastic
Manufacture: First built by parents and clubs from simple plans; today made in fibreglass by many yards.
The box-shaped hull with a blunt bow.
The spritsail held out by a diagonal sprit.
The removable daggerboard and rudder.