The Raven is an American
trailerable,
planing sailboat that was designed by
Roger McAleer and first built in 1949.
[Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 124-125. ]Houghton Mifflin Company
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...
, 1994.
Production
In the past the design has been built by
Sound Marine Construction, the
O'Day Corp.
O'Day Corp. was a United States, America sailboat builder, located in Fall River, Massachusetts.
History
It was founded in 1958 by George O'Day, the American Olympic and World champion sailor.
George O'Day sold the company to Bangor Punta Corpor ...
and
Nevins Inc., all in the
United States. Today it is built by
Cape Cod Shipbuilding and remains in production. A total of 400 boats have been built.
Design
The Raven is a recreational sailboat, originally built of cold molded
plywood
Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...
. In 1951 it was converted to be constructed of
fiberglass, with
teak wood trim, including the cockpit
coaming. It has a
fractional sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
rig with
aluminum spars, including a double-spreader mast, supported by
stainless steel
Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...
standing rigging. The hull has a spooned
raked stem, an angled
transom
Transom may refer to:
* Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar
* Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet
* Operation Tran ...
, an internally mounted, fiberglass, spade-type
rudder controlled by a
tiller and a retractable fiberglass
centerboard
A centreboard or centerboard (US) is a retractable hull appendage which pivots out of a slot in the hull of a sailboat, known as a ''centreboard trunk'' (UK) or ''centerboard case'' (US). The retractability allows the centreboard to be raised t ...
. It displaces and carries no ballast.
The boat has a draft of with the centreboard extended and with it retracted, allowing
beaching or ground transportation on a
trailer.
For sailing the design has
roller reefing for the
mainsail, dual
self-bailers and a 6:1
mechanical advantage outhaul. A
spinnaker
A spinnaker is a sail designed specifically for sailing off the wind on courses between a reach (wind at 90° to the course) to downwind (course in the same direction as the wind). Spinnakers are constructed of lightweight fabric, usually n ...
is optional.
Class rule changes instituted in 1970 allowed for a one-piece aluminum centerboard, a
trapeze, a full width
mainsheet traveler mounted on the aft deck and
hiking strap
In sailing, hiking (stacking or stacking out in New Zealand; leaning out or sitting out in United Kingdom) is the action of moving the crew's body weight as far to windward (upwind) as possible, in order to decrease the extent the boat heels (le ...
s.
The design has a
Portsmouth Yardstick racing average handicap of 82.6 and is normally raced by a crew of three
sailors.
Operational history
When the Raven was first built of fiberglass, starting in 1951, the initial eight production boats were purchased by the
United States Coast Guard Academy for cadet training.
See also
*
List of sailing boat types
The following is a partial list of sailboat types and sailing classes, including keelboats, dinghies and multihull ( catamarans and trimarans).
Olympic classes
World Sailing Classes
Historically known as the IYRU (International Yacht Racing ...
References
External links
Official website
{{Trailer sailers and Trailer yachts worldwide
1940s sailboat type designs
Sailing yachts
Trailer sailers
Sailboat types built by Cape Cod Shipbuilding
Sailboat types built by Sound Marine Construction
Sailboat types built by O'Day Corp.
Sailboat types built by Nevins Inc.
Sailboat type designs by Roger McAleer