The Atlantic is a

one-design One-design racing is a racing method which may be adopted in sports using complex equipment, whereby all vehicles have identical or very similar designs or models, avoiding the need for a Handicapping, handicap system. Motorsport One-make racing ...

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 ...

, designed by

Starling Burgess William Starling Burgess (December 25, 1878 – March 19, 1947) was an American yacht designer, aviation pioneer, and naval architect. He was awarded the highest prize in aviation, the Collier Trophy in 1915, just two years after Orville Wright w ...

in 1928. It is a 30-foot open-cockpit

day sailer A daysailer, day sailer, or dayboat is a small sailboat with or without sleeping accommodations but which is larger than a dinghy. Dayboats can be mono hull or multihull, and are typically trailer-able. Many dayboats have a small cabin or "cu ...

, typically used for day racing, rather than for overnight or ocean races. In the years following its design, fleets were established in several US ports along the eastern seaboard. Today, the Atlantic is raced primarily in

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

and in coastal

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

, and boats are distributed among five fleets, with a total of approximately 50 boats in present use.

Production

The design has been built by Cape Cod Shipbuilding and

Seafarer Yachts Seafarer Fiberglass Yachts, Inc. (usually called Seafarer Yachts) was an American sailboat importer, distributor and boat builder based in Huntington, New York. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of fiberglass sailboats. The ...

in the United States, as well as by

Abeking & Rasmussen Abeking & Rasmussen (A&R) is a shipyard situated in Lemwerder, near Bremen in the Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. The shipyard is on the left bank of the Weser, River Weser, and currently comprises five production halls with associated work ...

Bremen, Germany Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the German state of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. W ...

Design

In 1928, Starling Burgess, then a well-known

naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners. {{Commons category, Architecture by occupation Design occupations Occupations Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's rol ...

age 50, decided to try to design and establish a

sailboat that would be raced in fleets along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Working with German boat yard

, he designed a prototype which he showed to yacht clubs along the east coast. The initial cost of the boat was $1800, below that of competing boats. The Atlantic is a racing

, with early examples built predominantly of wood and later ones from

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

, with wood trim. It has a fractional sloop rig; a

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, angled transom; an open cockpit with no cabin; a

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

-mounted

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

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, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn ...

and a fixed fin

. It displaces and carries of ballast. The boat has a draft of with the standard keel and a

hull speed Hull speed or displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to- ...

of .

Operational history

The boat is supported by an active class club that organizes racing events, the ''Atlantic Class Association''. In 1930, there were 99 Atlantics, sailing in 13 fleets along

, the south shore of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. S ...

, and

. Three Atlantic sailors went on to win as skippers on

America's Cup The America's Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy (known ...

boats:

Briggs Cunningham Briggs Swift Cunningham II (January 19, 1907 – July 2, 2003) was an American entrepreneur and sportsman. He is best known for skippering the yacht Columbia (1958 yacht), ''Columbia'' to victory in the 1958 America's Cup race, and for his effor ...

, Bus Mosbacher, and Bob Bavier. In 1953, the Atlantic Class rules committee approved a rule change that allowed the reconstruction of the plank-on-frame Atlantics using

. The conversions were to be performed by Cape Cod Shipbuilding. Twenty boats were rebuilt using fiberglass between 1956 and 1958,, and since then nearly all existing boats have been converted. In addition, fifty new Atlantics have been built using fiberglass. Atlantic Start

The Atlantic fleet remains active; its two largest-ever Nationals (with 41 boats each) were held in 1947 and 2012. In a 1994 review Richard Sherwood wrote, "the original boats were built of wood during the twenties, and the boat was popular on Long Island Sound, where many famous names in sailing — Cunningham, Mosbacher, Romagna, Bavier, Shields, etc. — raced the boat. Later, the wooden hulls were replaced with FRP, with the original keels, spars, rudder and rigging transferred to the new hulls, Beginning in 1962, the boat was built totally new. A few boats have been modified for cruising and have a small deckhouse, with a Vee berth, a sink, and a head. "Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 134-135.

Houghton Mifflin Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( ; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works. The company is based in the Boston Financial District. It was formerly known as the Houghto ...

, 1994.

Fleets

* Cedar Point Yacht Club (YC) - 18 boats * Cold Spring Harbor YC - 9 boats * Kollegewidgwok YC - 21 boats * Niantic Bay YC - 9 boats * Madison Beach Club - 7 boats

References

{{Seafarer Yachts Sailing yachts Keelboats 1920s sailboat type designs Sailboat type designs by American designers Sailboat types built by Abeking & Rasmussen Sailboat types built by Cape Cod Shipbuilding Sailboat types built by Seafarer Yachts