Specifications
LOA	30'8"
LWL	21'3"
Draft	9'
Beam	7'3"
Main and Jib Sail Area	500 sq ft (46 m²).

A Winter Harbor 21, (also known as a Winter Harbor Knockabout) is a 31′0″ x 7′3″ one-design racing sloop

Sloop

A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....

 designed and built by Burgess & Packard, of Marblehead, Massachusetts

Marblehead, Massachusetts

Marblehead is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,808 at the 2010 census. It is home to the Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary and Devereux Beach...

, in 1907.

History

In 1906, Fredrick O. Spedden and George Dallas Dixon Jr., members of Maine's Winter Harbor Yacht Club commissioned Starling Burgess and his partner, Alpheus A. Packard to create a one-design

One-design

One-Design is a racing method where all vehicles or boats have identical or very similar designs or models. It is also known as Spec series. It is heavily used in sailboat racing. All competitors in a race are then judged based on a single start time...

 racing sloop for the club. Their firm, Burgess & Packard, produced the Winter Harbor 21, a knockabout. Seven boats were built by Burgess & Packard and launched in 1907. Two more boats were built by George Lawley & Son

George Lawley & Son

George Lawley & Son was a shipbuilding firm operating in Massachusetts from 1866 to 1945. It began in Scituate, then moved to Boston. After founder George Lawley retired in 1890, his son, grandson and great-grandson upheld the business, which continued until 1945...

 in 1920 and 1924, bringing the total fleet to 9.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and the 1950s, the fleet was gradually sold and dispersed until only El Fitz and one other knockabout remained active at the Winter Harbor Yacht Club.

In 1979, Alan Goldstein, commodore of the Winter Harbor Yacht Club, decided while sailing on one of the two remaining boats that he wanted one of his own. It took him two years of diligent searching before he discovered the boat Cloverly in poor condition rotting in a barn. After extensive rebuilding there were three Winter Harbor 21s racing once more in Winter Harbor. It took ten more years before the remaining six sloops had been found, restored and returned to Winter Harbor.

It's thought that the Winter Harbor 21s are the oldest intact one-design racing sailboat fleet in the United States.

The Boats and Owners

Name - Year Built - color - owner

Mystery – 1907 - pink - Dexter Coffin family

Whippet – 1907 – white – Samuel Heffner - restored by Benjamin River Marine, Brooklyn, Maine

Cloverly – 1907 – maroon – Alan Goldstein

Riddle – 1907 – green – Chas Wiggins

Water Witch – 1907 – yellow - Dexter Coffin Family - restored by Redd's Pond Boatworks and Marblehead Trading Company, Marblehead, Massachusetts

Rambler II – 1907 – gray – Anthony Harwood

Sphinx – 1907 – red-orange - John Banes, et al

Sole – 1922 – blue – Edith Dixon

El Fitz – 1924 – varnish – Hilary Dixon Miller