The Cape Cod Frosty is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by Harwich, Massachusetts harbormaster Thomas Leach as a one-design racer and first built in 1984.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 2-3. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994. The Frosty is the world's smallest racing sailboat class and was designed for lightness and simplicity. It was conceived for after normal season "frostbite racing", when most owners will have already hauled out their larger racing boats for the winter. The initial construction cost was estimated at less than

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

Production

The design is usually amateur constructed from plans in the eastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and is supported by the ''Cape Cod Frosty Class Association''. Some production boats were built in the past from

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

by Sailpower Corp and Star Marine. Star Marine also provided kits for amateur completion at one point. More than 1,000 boats have been completed in total.

Design

The Frosty is a racing

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

, usually built of

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

, using two sheets of

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

and assembled using an

epoxy Epoxy is the family of basic components or cured end products of epoxy resins. Epoxy resins, also known as polyepoxides, are a class of reactive prepolymers and polymers which contain epoxide groups. The epoxide functional group is also coll ...

stitch and glue Stitch and glue is a simple boat building method which uses plywood panels temporarily stitched together, typically with wire or zip-ties, and glued together permanently with epoxy resin. This type of construction can eliminate much of the need f ...

technique. The design has a

pram hull A pram or pramm describes a type of shallow-draught flat-bottomed ship, usually propelled by pushing the ship through the water using a long pole, although sailing prams also exist. The name pram derives from the Latin ''premere'' ("press erb). ...

with no chines or internal framing and has only one bulkhead. It features an unstayed

catboat A catboat (alternate spelling: cat boat) is a sailboat with a single sail on a single mast set well forward in the bow of a very beamy and (usually) shallow draft hull. Typically they are gaff rigged, though Bermuda rig is also used. Most are f ...

single sail rig, with wooden or

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

spars, a nearly

plumb stem The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively. Description The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up to ...

, a vertical

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

, a transom-hung

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

controlled by a

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

with an extension and a retractable

daggerboard A daggerboard is a retractable centreboard used by various sailing craft. While other types of centreboard may pivot to retract, a daggerboard slides in a casing. The shape of the daggerboard converts the forward motion into a windward lift, cou ...

. It displaces . The boat has a draft of with the daggerboard fully down. For sailing the design is equipped with flotation bags. To ensure equal competition, the class rules require ballasting to a combined boat and crew weight of , using water-filled plastic jugs. A boom vang,

Cunningham Cunningham is a surname of Scottish origin, see Clan Cunningham. Notable people sharing this surname A–C *Aaron Cunningham (born 1986), American baseball player *Abe Cunningham, American drummer * Adrian Cunningham (born 1960), Australian ...

and mainsheet traveler are optional. The class association notes, "this is not a boat for juniors, in fact, only experienced sailors need apply".

Operational history

In a 1994 review Richard Sherwood wrote, "this is the world’s smallest racing class — and all boats are equally slow. But when you put your big boat up for the winter, you may still compete, and perhaps on a more friendly level." The first class championship regatta was held at the Hyannis Yacht Club in

Hyannis, Massachusetts Hyannis is the largest of the seven villages in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is the commercial and transportation hub of Cape Cod and was designated an urban area at the 1990 census. Because of this, many refer t ...

on 28 April 1985, with 21 local sailors competing in the six races. The following year it became a two-day event. By 2001 there were 15 fleets racing the design in the eastern United States and Canada, plus an annual North American Championship.

References

{{Sailing dinghies and skiffs Dinghies 1980s sailboat type designs Sailboat type designs by Thomas Leach Sailboat types built by Sailpower Corp Sailboat types built by Star Marine

Production

Design

Operational history

See also

References