Bermuda Fitted Dinghy

The Bermuda Fitted Dinghy is a type of racing-dedicated sail boat used for competitions between the yacht clubs of Bermuda. Although the class has only existed for about 130 years, the boats are a continuance of a tradition of boat and ship design in Bermuda that stretches back to the earliest decades of the 17th century.

The Bermuda rig, also known as a Marconi rig, refers to a configuration of mast and rigging with a triangular sail set aft of the mast with its headsail raised to the top of the mast. Its luff runs down the mast and is normally attached to the mast for its entire length. The sail's tack is attached at the base of the mast; its foot controlled by a boom; and its clew attached to the aft end of the boom, which is controlled by its sheet. In many early Bermudian vessels there were no booms, or only the outward corner of the mainsail might be attached to the boom, as is the case with Bermuda Fitted Dinghies. On traditional Bermudian designs, the mast was raked, and a long bowsprit was fitted, to which more than one jib might be fastened. This rig evolved on boats and small ships built in Bermuda throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, and had matured into its more or less modern form by the early 19th century. Although the rig became almost universally used on yachts and small boats during the 20th century, the traditional designs used in Bermuda were too demanding to sail for small or inexperienced crews, and there are few vessels outside of museums that have a traditional Bermudan rig – other than Bermuda Fitted Dinghies.

The development of the rig is thought to have begun with fore-and-aft rigged boats built by a Dutch-born Bermudian in the 17th century. The Dutch were influenced by Moorish lateen rigs introduced during Spain's rule of the Netherlands. The Dutch eventually modified the design by omitting the masts, with the yard arms of the lateens being stepped in thwarts. By this process, the yards became raked masts. Lateen sails mounted this way were known as leg-of-mutton sails in English. The Dutch called a vessel rigged in this manner a bezaanjacht (). Captain John Smith reported that Captain Nathaniel Butler, governor of Bermuda from 1619 to 1622, employed the Dutch boat builder, who quickly established a leading position among Bermuda's boat makers obliging his competitors to emulate his designs. A poem published by John H. Hardie in 1671 described Bermuda's boats in the following way: "With tripple corner'd Sayls they always float, About the Islands, in the world there are, None in all points that may with them compare".

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