Gordon K. "Sandy" Douglass (October 22, 1904 – February 12, 1992) was an American racer,

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

, and builder of sailing dinghies. Two of his designs, the

Thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. ...

and the Flying Scot, are among the most popular one design racing classes in the United States. The Flying Scot was inducted into the

American Sailboat Hall of Fame The American Sailboat Hall of Fame is a defunct hall of fame honoring 26 production sailboats built-in the United States. The hall of fame was established in 1994 by Sail America, a trade association for the U.S. sailing industry, to recognize ing ...

. As a small boat racer, Douglass was five times the North American champion in the 10 Square Meter International Sailing Canoe, five times the United States national champion in the Thistle, and seven times the Flying Scot North American champion.

Personal life

Douglass was born in 1904, in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.The Dakota The Dakota, also known as the Dakota Apartments, is a Housing cooperative, cooperative apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street (Manhattan), 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The Dakota was construc ...

, an apartment building in

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, moving the family there in 1920. His father was a champion sailing canoe racer, and Douglass' sailing experience started in his youth. His family vacationed in the

Thousand Islands The Thousand Islands (french: Mille-Îles) constitute a North American archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada–US border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for abo ...

region of the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

, eventually buying a small island there. Douglass went to prep school at Collegiate School in New York City, then to

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

, graduating in 1926. His athletic pursuits included college

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

, canoe paddling,

ice boat An iceboat (occasionally spelled ice boat or traditionally called an ice yacht) is a recreational or competition sailing craft supported on metal runners for traveling over ice. One of the runners is steerable. Originally, such craft were boats ...

ing, and sailing canoe racing. He qualified for the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

national canoe paddling team, but was not allowed to go to the

1936 Olympics 1936 Olympics may refer to: *The 1936 Winter Olympics, which were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany *The 1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI ...

because he was American. Douglass befriended English boat designer and racer,

Uffa Fox Uffa Fox, CBE (15 January 1898 – 26 October 1972) was an English boat designer and sailing enthusiast, responsible for a number of innovations in boat design. Not afraid of courting controversy or causing offense, he is remembered for his ec ...

, whom he met through sailing canoe racing.

Career

After false starts at selling

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

s and painting portraits, Douglass took up

boat building Boat building is the design and construction of boats and their systems. This includes at a minimum a hull, with propulsion, mechanical, navigation, safety and other systems as a craft requires. Construction materials and methods Wood W ...

in 1938. At several shops in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, he built sailing canoes, International 14's,

Interlakes The Interlakes, also known as the Interlakes District, is a geographic region of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located along and around the Interlakes Highway between 100 Mile House on BC Highway 97 and Little Fort on the North Tho ...

, and

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. After a wartime job as a lofter for a

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

company, Douglass designed the Thistle in 1945. Influenced by Uffa Fox's International 14 design, and built using the innovative molded

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 ...

technique, the Thistle quickly caught on with dinghy racers. It was light, fast, and held to strict one design standards by the Thistle Class Association, founded by Douglass. In 1949, Douglass designed the Highlander, a racing dinghy still sailed in the US south and

midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

. His goal was that it be stable and fast, and yet be family friendly, using a broader beam and harder bilges than in previous designs. He published plans in 1950, launched the first hull in 1951 and exhibited at the New York Boat Show in 1952. He raced his designs, both to promote them and the sport of dinghy sailing. His involvement with the Thistle and the Highlander ended in 1951 when he split with Ray McLeod, his business partner. Douglass then designed the Flying Scot in 1956 for construction in the then-new technique of glass-reinforced polyester. Larger and more stable than the Thistle, the Flying Scot also became popular. Its wide beam and the prohibition of hiking straps were an effort to make the boat more competitive for smaller-sized people like Douglass and his wife, Mary, who crewed for him for 30 years.Obituary, Mary T. Douglass, The Republican Newspaper (Oakland, Maryland), Accessed Nov. 19, 2007 His dinghy designs incorporated then-novel features that later became standard for other types of high-performance racing dinghies, including hiking straps and dual-lead lines to both sides of the boat.

Retirement

Douglass moved his business to

Oakland, Maryland Oakland is a town in the west-central part of Garrett County, Maryland, United States. The town has a population of 1,925 according to the 2010 United States Census. The town is also the county seat of Garrett County and is located within the Pitt ...

, in 1958. Douglass retired in 1971 and sold the company. The successor company, Flying Scot, Inc., still builds Flying Scots in Oakland. Douglas died in 1992. He and Mary (1907–2005) had one son, Alan. He wrote an autobiography, ''Sixty Years Behind the Mast: The Fox on the Water'', in 1986. Among his hobbies was barbershop singing. Douglass was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2020.

References

External links

1933 - The Year of the International Challenge Cup ~ from Gordon K. (Sandy) Douglas Sixty Years Behind the Mast - The Fox on the Water ~

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglass, Gordon K. 1904 births 1992 deaths American yacht designers Sportspeople from Newark, New Jersey People from Oakland, Maryland 20th-century American architects 20th-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Newark, New Jersey