The Flying Scot is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by Sandy Douglass as a one-design racer and first built in 1958.
Production
The design has been previously built by Tanzer Industries, Douglass & McLeod, Customflex and Lofland Sail-craft. Today it is built by Flying Scot, Inc. in Deer Park, Maryland, United States. A total of 5,300 boats have been completed.
Design
The Flying Scot is a recreational sailboat, built predominantly of fiberglass with a balsa core. It has a fractional sloop rig with aluminum spars. The hull has a raked stem, a plumb transom, a transom-hung rudder controlled by a tiller and a retractable centerboard that weighs and is raised with a 6:1 mechanical advantage assist. The boat displaces and has foam flotation under the seats for safety.
In a 1994 review Richard Sherwood wrote, "a big, fast centerboard boat, the Flying Scot has an unusual reverse sheer. Capacity is eight adults. With hard bilges and a slightly tunneled hull, stability is good. Rigging is relatively simple, and the class rules discourage complexity."
In a 2017 review in Soundings, Joni Palmer, manager of the US Naval Academy’s sailing program said, "It’s not a high-performance boat, so anybody can get into the boat. You can’t tweak everything. It’s hard to gain an edge. You have to concentrate on tactics and speed. It’s just a solid boat. But these boats do plane!"
See also
- List of sailing boat types