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History



The North Haven Dinghy has been raced each summer for 138 consecutive years and counting — longer than any other one-design sailboat in America. There are several dozen Dinghies in active use, primarily in the waters around the Fox Islands in Maine, where the first 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/
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
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://www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org/pbho-1/collection/north-haven-dinghies-mill-river



Photo courtesy of the North Haven Historical Society, North Haven, Maine
© 2024 North Haven Dinghy Foundation, a nonprofit organization on North Haven, Maine