A Thistle sailing downwind.

The Thistle is a high performance racing dinghy, also used for day sailing, popular in the United States. The Thistle was designed by Gordon K. (Sandy) Douglass who later designed the Highlander and Flying Scot. (These names commemorate Douglass’s Scots heritage.) Starting in 1945, nearly 4000 boats have been built. They are number sequentially. Their construction originally used hot molded plywood. The builders started using Glass-reinforced polyester or "fiberglass" in the late 1950s. The current hull configuration uses a glass-reinforced polyester molded boat with wooden rails, center board trunk, thwart, fore grating, and aft grating. The spars were once made from spruce, but are now of entirely extruded aluminum construction. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (900x1260, 116 KB) Summary Photo by Paul Nelson Thistle # 3922, Terry Lettenmaier, skipper, sailing downwind at the Thistle Class Association Yale Lake Regatta, July 2004, near Cougar, Washington. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (900x1260, 116 KB) Summary Photo by Paul Nelson Thistle # 3922, Terry Lettenmaier, skipper, sailing downwind at the Thistle Class Association Yale Lake Regatta, July 2004, near Cougar, Washington. ... Dinghy racing is the competitive sport of sailing dinghies. ... 2 GP14s, a Topper and a Graduate Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using (1) the sails and (2) underwater foils (centreboard and rudder). ... A Douglass design in the early 50s, the Highlander was the last boat built by the Douglass & McLeod company. ... The Flying Scot is a day sailer for pleasure sailing as well as racing; it is sailed throughout North America. ... Transport in Scotland Timeline of Scottish history Caledonia List of not fully sovereign nations Subdivisions of Scotland National parks (Scotland) Traditional music of Scotland Flower of Scotland Wars of Scottish Independence National Trust for Scotland Historic houses in Scotland Castles in Scotland Museums in Scotland Abbeys and priories in Scotland... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Plywood was the first type of engineered wood to be invented. ... Glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), is a composite material or fibre reinforced plastic made of a plastic reinforced by fine fibers made of glass. ... // Events and trends This map shows two essential global spheres during the Cold War in 1959. ... The Fore are a highland people of Papua New Guinea. ... The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the smaller of the two education labor unions in the United States, representing 1. ... For the convenience store, see SPAR. Sailing ships A spar is a round timber or metal pole used on a sailing ship. ... For the process that creates volcanic rock, see extrusive (geology). ...

The Thistle Class Association, with fleets across the country, holds local, regional, and national regattas throughout the year. All Thistles are built to the same lines by authorized builders, and the class rules limit innovations in rigging, and purchases of sails, and electronic navigation gear. Old and new boats are evenly matched, with the owner of Thistle number 1 winning the national championship in 1990. Newer fiberglass hulls tend to "soften" over a period of 20 years, depending on use. This "softening" leads to a reduction in competitiveness. This article is about the year. ...

Thistle hulls are relatively light for their size, doing away with decking and spray protection to save weight. The sail plan is larger for the boat’s weight than in many other dinghies, making Thistles good light wind performers. Their hulls have wide flat bottoms, allowing the to boats plane in winds of 15 to 20 knots. The sail plan is large, for the boat, consisting of a marconi rig with a main, jib, and symetrical spinnaker. A Musto Skiff, planing on a fast reach A planing boats hull skims across the surface of the water rather than pushing through the water in the way a traditional displacement hull works. ... In sailing, a bermuda rig is: A rig of mainsail or course that consists of a triangular sail set aft of the mast, with its head raised to the top of the mast, its luff running down the mast and normally attached to it for all its length, its tack... A mainsail is the most important sail raised from the main (or only) mast of a sailing vessel. ... A jib is a triangular staysail set ahead of the foremost mast of a sailing boat. ... A spinnaker is a special type of sail that is designed specifically for sailing downwind (with the wind behind the boat). ...

Thistles are generally raced with a three person crew. A skipper, a middle, and a forward person. The optimal total crew weight is generally 450 lbs to 480 lbs (US) depending on wind. The crew weight, hoever, is generally not the deciding factor in determining the outcome of the races. In all but the strongest winds, an experienced two person crew can manage the boat. Hiking straps are permitted for either droop or straight leg hiking, but a trapeze is not. The class is generally family friendly, though experienced sailors will still be challenged at the higher levels of competition. In sailing, hiking is the action of moving the sailors body weight as far to windward (upwind) as possible, in order to counteract the force of the wind pushing sideways against the boats sails. ...

The Thistle is used as the baseline for the U.S. version of the Portsmouth yardstick system for handicapping small boats in mixed-class fleets. The Portsmouth yardstick (PY) scheme is a system of handicapping used in yacht racing and dinghy racing. ...

Specifications

• Length, overall: 17 ft (5.2 m)
• Length, waterline: 17 ft (5.2 m)
• Beam: 6 ft (1.8 m)
• Draft, board up: 6 in (0.15 m)
• Draft, board down: 4 ft 6 in (1.4 m)
• Sail area, main & jib: 191 ft² (17.7 m²)
• Sail area, spinnaker: 220 ft² (20.4 m²)
• Weight, all up: 515 lb (334 kg)