Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using five essential controls:
The Mirror is a popular sailing dinghy with more than 70,000 built.
Dinghy racing is a competitive sport using dinghies, which are small boats which may be rowboats, have an outboard motor, or be sailing dinghies. Dinghy racing has affected aspects of the modern sailing dinghy, including hull design, sail materials and sailplan, and techniques such as planing and trapezing.
A Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig, or Marconi rig is a configuration of mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. This configuration was developed in Bermuda in the 17th century; the term Marconi, a reference to the inventor of the radio, Guglielmo Marconi, became associated with this configuration in the early 20th century because the wires that stabilize the mast of a Bermuda rig reminded observers of the wires on early radio masts.
Gunter rig is a configuration of sail and spars used in sailing. It is a fore and aft sail set abaft (behind) the mast. The lower half of the luff (front) of the sail is attached to the mast, and the upper half is fastened to a spar which is approximately vertical and reaches above the top of the mast. This spar is called a "yard", but it is common for some to confuse it with a "gaff". The overall shape of a gunter sail is roughly triangular, so having a superficial resemblance to Bermuda rig.
The International 505 is a one-design high-performance two-person monohull planing dinghy, with spinnaker, utilising a trapeze for the crew.
The OK Dinghy is an international class sailing dinghy, designed by Knud Olsen in 1956.
The Byte is a small one-design sailing dinghy sailed by one person. It was designed by Canadian Ian Bruce, who also commissioned and marketed the Laser.
Otter is a classification referring to a particular design for a two-man sailing dinghy with a glass fibre hull. Its rig consists of a main, a jib and an optional symmetric spinnaker. The hull dimensions are 11 ft 11 in length and 4 ft 10 in beam. The boat has a draft of 3 ft 6 in with the centreboard down. The sail area is 75 sq. ft. The class symbol is a stylised glass bubble; due to the original lightweight "cigar box cedar" construction of the prototypes, the name 'Bubble' was first used for the boat. John Baker obtained the plans for an expanded version of the boat in G.R.P. and hence renamed the boat 'Glass Bubble'. After being put into production by Baker, the name 'Otter' was adopted; coming from the river of the same name in East Devon, close to where the boat was manufactured.
The Y Flyer is an 18-foot (5.5m) sloop-rigged racing dinghy designed to be sailed by 2 people. Although the boat looks and performs like a scow, the bottom of the hull is not quite flat, but split along the centerline into two flat chines. Y-flyers are built of either wood or fiberglass. The Y Flyer was designed in 1938 by Alvin Youngquist, a Naval Architect working in Toledo Ohio, who wished to build a two-person performance dinghy as a training boat for the larger A-Scow. He published the design in Rudder magazine with instructions for how to build it at home using marine plywood. Many Y Flyers are built by their owners following the class rules and design which remain little changed since 1938. Several commercial boat builders have also built Y-Flyers, including Hinterhoeller Yachts and Turner Marine, who are the only builder commercially offering the design today.
The Hunter 140 is an American dinghy that was designed by the Hunter Design Team as a sailing trainer and first built in 2003.
A boat or yacht that is Cat-rigged has a single mast, stepped well forward, carrying a single fore and aft sail, behind the mast. A boat that is cat-rigged can also be described as having a Una rig.
The Jolly Boat is a 15 foot ketch rigged open day-boat designed by J. Laurent Giles. Originally designed for plywood construction, more recent examples were made with GRP with plywood decks and bulkheads, manufactured by AJS Marine in Chichester. The standard specification was described as a yawl rig, however the mizzen mast is mounted forward of the rudder making the rig a ketch although this is unusual for so small a boat. The foresail is mounted on a bowsprit. A sloop rig version was also available. In the ketch configuration the mainsail is gaff rigged and the mizzen a balanced lug. A steel centre plate and ballast makes the boat quite stable, and the high topsides, broad beam and large cockpit are designed with comfortable family cruising in mind. An outboard well on the port side is provided for a 4h.p. outboard motor.
The Banshee is a 120-pound, 13-foot (4.0 m) cat-rigged one-design sailing dinghy with 82 square feet (7.6 m2) of sail. The boat was designed by Richard Reid in 1969. Its Portsmouth yardstick is 93.7 (2008).
There are three designs of Phantom sailboats, one is a small una rig which is often raced, another is a lateen rig that was designed after the Sunfish model sailing dinghy, and a third is a larger keelboat designed and built in Sydney, Australia.
The Gull sailing dinghy was designed by Ian Proctor in 1956, originally as a frameless double-chine plywood boat. However, it has been through several incarnations: the wooden Mark I, GRP Mark III, GRP Gull Spirit and GRP Gull Calypso. Today it is popular with sailing schools, especially in the UK.
The term Salcombe Yawl refers to a small sailing dinghy restricted class native to Salcombe in South Devon, and also to the traditional sailing vessel from the area upon which that class was based, with a 200-year history. The current class of vessel has about the size of a Merlin Rocket, that is 4.88 metres (16.0 ft) and about 180 have been built of which 80% are still in use. It is built traditionally by hand from mahogany, and is clinker built. The centre plate is cast iron, but more recent Yawls have bronze plates. While it is rigged as a ketch with the mizzen ahead of the rudder post, the label yawl is probably derived from a corruption of the word yole, meaning a small inshore fishing boat. Designers, work within the class restrictions, adding innovations to each vessel. It is raced in two classes depending on the age of the boat. A newly built boat in 2009 would cost £40,000 while a second hand vessel would be half of that. There is a glassfibre derivative with aluminium spars called a Devon Yawl. The mould for this was taken from a 1968 Salcombe Yawl and because of the nature of its construction is a one-design. There are approximately 300 Devon Yawls and they are built both in the UK and USA.
The Skimmer is an American sailing dinghy, that was designed by William F. Crosby for amateur construction in 1933.
The Hunter 146 is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by Chuck Burns and the Hunter Design Team as a novice sailboat and first built in 2003.
The Topper Topaz is a British single-handed or two-handed sailing dinghy that was designed as a beginner and intermediate racer.
