History and Design of the Small Point One Sailboat

Abstract

When I was eight years old, my godmother brought me for the first time to Small Point, ME, a small community on the water where she had summered for over 40 years. That first summer, I learned how to sail in a very small boat called an Optimist, graduating over the years to larger and larger boats until I finally learned to sail a unique boat that I have come to love: the Small Pointer. The Small Point-One Design is a 19 1/2 ft Knockabout with an integral keel and keel-mounted rudder. The design originated over 70 years ago; a total of 35 craft have been built in this style by eight different builders, with the most recent completed in 2004. All but one still exist, though not all are seaworthy; many of the older boats have been repaired and modified over the years. The extended building window for this design combined with a relatively large number of builders and modifiers has led to significant variances in some of the critical dimensions of the Small Point-One Design, raising the question as to whether it represents a true One Design anymore. I am interested in understanding the differences among the individual boats in this class and assessing how variations in the design might affect the performance of individual boats.