The Spindrift 13 is a Canadian

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 ...

that was designed by

Hubert Vandestadt Vandestadt and McGruer Limited (sometimes styled as Vandestadt & McGruer) was a Canadian boat builder based in Owen Sound, Ontario. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of fibreglass sailboats. The company was founded by Frase ...

and first built in 1965.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 26-27. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.

Production

The boat was produced as a kit and in completed form of

fibreglass 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 clo ...

, plus could be built from scratch from wood. The design was built by

Vandestadt and McGruer Limited Vandestadt and McGruer Limited (sometimes styled as Vandestadt & McGruer) was a Canadian boat builder based in Owen Sound, Ontario. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of fibreglass sailboats. The company was founded by Frase ...

Owen Sound, Ontario Owen Sound ( 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi and Sydenham Rivers on an inlet of Georgian Bay. The primary tourist attractio ...

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 ...

as its first product. There were 800 boats completed starting in 1965, but the company went out of business in 1987 and the boat is now out of production.

Design

The Spindrift 13 is a recreational

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 ...

, with the manufactured boats built predominantly of

, with the deck made as a foam sandwich. It has a fractional

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 ...

rig, a

raked 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 plumb

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. ...

and a retractable

centreboard A centreboard or centerboard (US) is a retractable hull appendage which pivots out of a slot in the hull of a sailboat, known as a ''centreboard trunk'' (UK) or ''centerboard case'' (US). The retractability allows the centreboard to be raised t ...

. Both the rudder and centreboard are "kick up" designs. For safety the design has fore and aft buoyancy tanks and a foam-filled mast. The boat displaces and is equipped with a

boom vang A boom vang (US) or kicking strap (UK) (often shortened to "vang" or "kicker") is a line or piston system on a sailboat used to exert downward force on the boom and thus control the shape of the sail. The Collins English Dictionary defines it as ...

and

jiffy reefing Reefing reduces the area of a sail, usually by folding or rolling one edge of the canvas in on itself and attaching the unused portion to a spar or a stay, as the primary measure to preserve a sailing vessel's stability in strong winds. Restoring ...

. A

spinnaker A spinnaker is a sail designed specifically for sailing off the wind on courses between a reach (wind at 90° to the course) to downwind (course in the same direction as the wind). Spinnakers are constructed of lightweight fabric, usually n ...

of can be fitted. The boat has a draft of with the centreboard extended and with it retracted, allowing beaching or ground transportation on a trailer or car roof rack. The design has a capacity of four people, but is raced with a crew of two. The design has a

Portsmouth Yardstick The Portsmouth Yardstick (PY) or Portsmouth handicap scheme is a term used for a number of related systems of empirical handicapping used primarily in small sailboat racing. The handicap is applied to the time taken to sail any course, and the han ...

sailing handicap of 103.6.

References

{{Sailing dinghies and skiffs Dinghies 1960s sailboat type designs Sailboat type designs by Hubert Vandestadt Sailboat types built by Vandestadt and McGruer Limited

Production

Design

See also

References