History ♥ North Haven Dinghy Foundation

The North Haven Dinghy has been raced each summer for 139 consecutive years and counting — longer than any other one-design sailboat. The Dinghy's design dates to the 1885 modification of a tender on the schooner yacht Gitana, which was race-tested in 1886, and exactly copied for “fair” competition in 1887. There are several dozen Dinghies in active use, primarily in the waters around the Fox Islands in Maine, where the first official Dinghy race was held on Monday, August 15th, 1887, and Ellen Hayward in Griffin beat a couple fellows named Charles, all in identical sailboats. Since 1912, a local yacht club, the North Haven Casino, has conducted most of the summer-season Dinghy races. Here are some resources to learn more about Dinghy history:

	The official US Sailing Dinghy profile https://www.ussailing.org/one-design-profile/north-haven-dinghy/
	2025 summary of Dinghy Foundation work https://www.ussailing.org/news/how-the-north-haven-dinghy-foundation-is-bringing-back-an-iconic-boat/
	2025 reboot of the historical racing class https://maineboats.com/content/historic-class-racing-dinghies
	The Mystic Seaport Museum report on the first Dinghy race https://issuu.com/mysticseaport/docs/mystic_seaport_museum_magazine_fall_winter_2025/21
	Historical precis with diagrams https://nhdinghy.org/Docs/John-Leather-Dinghy.pdf
	Background on the Dinghy from the North Haven Historical Society http://www.northhavenmainehistoricalsociety.org/north-haven-dinghy.html
	Long-form contextual piece on the Dinghy’s origin https://sailcraftblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/13/pt-1-12all-built-and-rigged-the-same-the-invention-of-the-one-design-class/
	On the Dinghy’s 100th anniversary https://nhdinghy.org/Docs/nhd-100th-article.pdf
	Photos of the Gitana, carrying the Dinghy prototype https://nhdinghy.org/gitana.php
	Racing logs from the North Haven yacht club https://casinoracer.club/north-haven-dinghy-racing
	The great Dinghy race up Mill River https://nhdinghy.org/Docs/MillRiverRegatta.pdf
	Class information from a Maine boatwright https://www.artisanboatworks.com/classic-designs/rowboats/north-haven-dinghy
	Dinghy info from Penobscot Marine Museum https://penobscotmarinemuseum.historyit.com/items/view/digital-collection/220152