The Dickerson 41 is an American

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 Ernest Tucker as a cruiser and first built in 1973.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 354-355. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.

Production

The design was built by Dickerson Boatbuilders in

Trappe, Maryland Trappe is a town in Talbot County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,077 at the 2010 census. It is the site of one of the largest mixed-use developments on the U.S. East Coast called Trappe East or "Lakeside" with controversy arising ...

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. The company built the boats individually with custom interiors, between 1973 and 1983, completing 19 examples of the design.

Design

The Dickerson 41 is a recreational

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

, built predominantly of 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 ...

, with marine-grade plywood bulkheads and

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...

wood trim. It has a

masthead sloop A masthead rig on a sailing vessel consists of a forestay and backstay both attached at the top of the mast. The Bermuda rig can be split into two groups: the masthead rig and the fractional rig. The masthead rig has larger and more headsails, ...

or optional

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

rig, with epoxy-finished

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 ...

spars and a

bowsprit The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay A bobstay is a part of the rigging of a sailing boat or ship. Its purpose is to counteract the upward tensio ...

. The design features a center cockpit, a concave

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 raised counter transom, a keel-mounted

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 wheel

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 fixed long

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

, with a cutaway forefoot. It displaces and carries of internal keel ingot lead ballast. The boat has a draft of with the standard keel fitted. The boat is fitted with a Westerbeke 4-230

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

of , driving a three-bladed propeller for docking and maneuvering. The fuel tank holds . The design has a number of optional cabin layouts. A typical arrangement includes a double "V"-berth in the bow cabin, an "L"-shaped settee with a drop-down dinette table that makes a double berth and a straight settee in the main cabin. There is also an aft cabin with a double berth. The galley is located on the port side just forward of the center

companionway In the architecture of a ship, a companion or companionway is a raised and windowed hatchway in the ship's deck, with a ladder leading below and the hooded entrance-hatch to the main cabins. A companionway may be secured by doors or, commonly in ...

ladder. The galley is "L"-shaped and is equipped with a three-burner alcohol-fired stove, a capacity fiberglass

icebox An icebox (also called a cold closet) is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common early-twentieth-century kitchen appliance before the development of safely powered refrigeration devices. Before the development of electric refrige ...

and a sink with a pressurized water supply. An optional navigation station is opposite the galley, on the starboard side. There are two heads, one amidships on the starboard side that includes a shower and a second optional one in the aft cabin. The headroom below decks is . Ventilation is provided by three opening ports and three deck hatches. There are also two fixed portlights. The wood above decks is all teak, including the cockpit

coaming Coaming is any vertical surface on a ship designed to deflect or prevent entry of water. It usually consists of a raised section of deck plating around an opening, such as a cargo hatch. Coamings also provide a frame onto which to fit a hatch cov ...

, toe-rails, handrails and the hatches. For sailing there are two speed

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winches in the cockpit, plus genoa tracks. Three halyard winches are standard equipment. Both the

mainsail A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel. * On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast. * On a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, it is the sail rigged aft of the main mast. The sail's foot i ...

and the

mizzen The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation l ...

sail have

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 ...

. The bow incorporates an

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄ� ...

locker. A teak deck was an option.

Operational history

A Dickerson 41 ketch built in 1974 completed a global

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Mage ...

between 1975 and 1979. In a 1994 review Richard Sherwood wrote, "the 41 is the intermediate Dickerson. Dickerson also makes a 37 and a 50. All are based on Dickerson’s long experience with cruising ketches. The 41 has a number of rig options, such as a cutter or ketch rig, a self-tacking forestaysail, twin headsails, and a roller-furling genoa."

References

{{Reflist

External links

Video tour of a Dickerson 41
Keelboats 1970s sailboat type designs Sailing yachts Sailboat type designs by Ernest Tucker Sailboat types built by Dickerson Boatbuilders

Production

Design

Operational history

See also

References

External links