Windmill
Description
The Windmill sailboat is a popular American one-design racing dinghy designed by Clark Mills in 1953 as an affordable, high-performance two-person boat that could be easily built by amateur constructors using just four sheets of plywood (later also produced in fiberglass). It was built by various yards including Advance Sailboat Corp., Johannsen Boat Works, and Lockley Newport Boats, with an estimated 5,700 hulls constructed since its introduction, making it one of the more successful home-built classes of its era. The Windmill emphasizes simplicity—no trapeze or spinnaker—with a fractional sloop rig on a lightweight, planing V-bottom hull (often described as a double-chine or plywood form) that delivers responsive performance for a wide range of sailors while remaining unsinkable in some constructions thanks to foam core or positive flotation. It remains active today through the Windmill Class Association, with fleets focused on club racing and national events, prized for its accessibility, low cost, and lively sailing characteristics in a compact package.
Construction Details
| Designer | Clark W. Mills |
|---|---|
| Builder | Home Built |
| Length | 15.000 ft |
| LOA | 15.500 ft |
| LWL | 14.500 ft |
| Beam | 4.750 ft |
| Displacement | 198 lb |
| Max Draft | 4.170 ft |
| Min Draft | 0.500 ft |
| Year Built | 1953 |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Sails
Windmill - MAINSAIL
| Luff | 16 ft - (4877 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 9.33 ft - (2844 mm) |
| Leech | * 17.37 ft - (5294 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 84.07 ° |
| Diagonal | 17.67 ft - (5386 mm) |
| Head (inches) | 6 in - (152 mm) |
| Area | * 77.74 ft² |
| Edit in Calculator |
Windmill - JIBSAIL
| Luff | 12.25 ft - (3734 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 6.33 ft - (1929 mm) |
| Leech | 11.5 ft - (3505 mm) |
| Length Perpendicular | 5.87 ft - (1789 mm) |
| Area | * 35.97 ft² |
| Edit in Calculator |
Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.
Comments
