The Minto Sailing Dinghy is a

sailing dinghy Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using five essential controls: * the sails * the foils (i.e. the daggerboard or centreboard and rudder and sometimes lifting foils as found on the Moth) * the trim (forward/rear angle of ...

first produced commercially in the early 1960 and still in production.

Initial version

The Minto Sailing Dinghy began its life as a

skiff A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-person or small crew. Sailing skiffs have devel ...

for a 24-foot

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

built by Hugh Rodd at Canoe Cove on

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

. The sloop was commissioned by a Vancouver Island printer who had made some money from an investment in the Minto Mine in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, and hence he named the sloop "Minto". After returning from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1946

Rob Wittlesey Rob or ROB may refer to: Places * Rob, Velike Lašče, a settlement in Slovenia * Roberts International Airport (IATA code ROB), in Monrovia, Liberia People * Rob (given name), a given name or nickname, e.g., for Robert(o), Robin/Robyn * Rob ( ...

purchased the Minto and shortly thereafter traded the skiff, with "MINTO RVYC" carved into its transom, to Bob Schoen of

Orcas Island Orcas Island () is the largest of the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest, which are in the northwestern corner of San Juan County, Washington. History and naming of the island The name "Orcas" is a shortened form of ''Horcasitas,'' fro ...

for a smaller dinghy.

First commercial fiberglass version

The Minto skiff eventually got stored in Bob's barn, where his friend Heine Dole, a NW marine architect, saw it and convinced Bob it would make a great dinghy reproduced in

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 ...

. Heine took the skiff to Ed Hoppen, the Gig Harbor boat builder who was the original builder of the popular

Thunderbird Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to: * Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture * Ford Thunderbird, a car Birds * Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...

sailboats. After cutting out about two feet and reshaping the hull, Dole and Hoppen used the old Minto skiff as the plug for the first fiberglass Minto mold. Initially the objective was to only build five boats for themselves, Bob Schoen, and some friends. Hull number one was destroyed in trying to remove it from the mold, but hulls two through six did survive and are still in use today. As interest in the attractive little boats grew Hoppen was prompted by numerous requests to put the Minto into regular production. Ed Hoppen produced a couple hundred EDDON Boat Yard Mintos in the early 1960s, and then in the mid-1960s licensed Howard Smith, the owner of Ranger Boats in Kent, Washington, to add the Minto to his increasing line of small rowing and sailing craft. Until Ranger was sold in 1999, "Smitty" produced about 1000 Ranger Mintos, becoming one of the most popular and recognized yacht tenders in the NW. Although the little

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

graphic Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, ...

displayed on the sails of the EDDON, Ranger and Rich Passage Boats Minto dinghies implies a direct link to the SS Minto steamship that operated on Arrow Lake in British Columbia for over 50 years, the association was created by Ed and Heine. They were looking for a way to make the new little fiberglass dinghy distinctive and they thought there was a similarity to the life boats used on the SS Minto and so chose the steamship graphic for the Minto.

2005 Revival

In 2005 Rich Passage Boats, LLC of Port Orchard WA put the Minto back into production as the Rich Passage Minto, using one of the two former Ranger Minto molds. The Three Tree Point Yacht Club of Des Moines, WA has been hosting the Minto Mingle for 29 years.

External links

* {{Sailing dinghies and skiffs Dinghies