The US Sabot is an American pram

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 terminolo ...

that was designed by Charles McGregor as a one-design racer and first built in 1939. The design is a development of McGregor's Sabot, based upon the plans published in ''The Rudder'' magazine in 1939. The basic Sabot design has been widely adapted and other derivations include the

leeboard A leeboard is a form of pivoting keel used by a sailboat largely and very often in lieu of a fixed keel. Typically mounted in pairs on each side of a hull, leeboards function much like a centreboard, allowing shallow-draft craft to ply waters f ...

-equipped

Naples Sabot The Naples Sabot is an sailing dinghy. The Naples Sabot was designed by Roy McCullough and R.A. Violette and the first two were built in Violette's garage during WW II, although official designs were not made available until 1946. The Naples Sab ...

, as well as the daggerboard-equipped El Toro, Wind'ard Sabot and the Australian

Holdfast Trainer The Holdfast Trainer is a South Australian sailing dinghy designed in 1948 for junior sailors under the required age of 16. Based on the Sabot, the class features a hard-chine wooden or fiberglass hull with a flat (or "pram") bow and a daggerbo ...

Production

The boat was originally intended for

home construction Home construction or residential construction is the process of constructing a house, apartment building, or similar residential building generally referred to as a 'home' when giving consideration to the people who might now or someday reside th ...

from wood, by amateur builders. The design was later mass-produced by

W. D. Schock Corp The W. D. Schock Corporation (usually styled W. D. Schock Corp) is an American boat builder originally based in Newport Beach, California, later in Corona, California and currently located in Santa Ana, California. The company was founded by Wi ...

and

Catalina Yachts Catalina Yachts is a U.S.-based builder of fiberglass monohull sloop-rigged sailboats ranging in sizes from eight to 54 feet in length. It was founded in 1969 in Hollywood, California by Frank Butler . Catalina Yachts is one of the largest boat m ...

in the United States, but it is now out of production.

Design

The US Sabot is a recreational

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 o ...

. The early versions were built from plywood, while later production boats were made with hand-laid

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 clo ...

hulls over cores, providing positive flotation. The boat has a

cat rig 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 ...

, a squared pram stem, a nearly-plumb transom, 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 air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

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 square daggerboard. It displaces . Catalina-produced Sabots have tapered fiberglass masts and anodized

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 ha ...

booms. The boat has a draft of with the daggerboardextended. With the daggerboard removed it may be sailed in shallow water, beached or ground-transported on a trailer or automobile rooftop.

Operational history

At one time the boat had a class club that organized racing events, the ''US Sabot Class Association'', but by early 2013 its website had been taken down and it seems to be no longer active. A 2013 review on ''boat.com'' noted that the design is, "the perfect first boat for the beginning sailor and popular with junior sailing programs for its simplicity and safety. Equipped with the racing package, the Sabot offers all the sail controls of a larger boat, so learning sailors can develop the full range of sail trimming skills." Lynn Boats described the Catalina-made US Sabot as, "the perfect first boat for the beginning sailor. Simplicity and safety make the U.S. Sabot popular with junior programs ... The U.S. Sabot is built to withstand the tough use of a learning sailor."

References

External links

Photo of a US SabotPhoto of US Sabots racing
{{Sailing dinghies and skiffs Dinghies 1930s sailboat type designs One-design sailing classes Sailboat type designs by Charles McGregor Sailboat types built by Catalina Yachts Sailboat types built by W. D. Schock Corp

Production

Design

Operational history

See also

References

External links