The Lightning is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by Olin Stephens of Sparkman & Stephens, as a one-design racer and first built in 1938.
An accepted World Sailing class, the boat is one of the most popular one-design sailing classes in the United States and is also raced in several other countries.
Production
The design has been built by a large number of manufacturers in the United States and also in Canada. There have been 15,550 boats completed and it remains in production by the Allen Boat Company along with nickels boatworks.
In the past it has been built in the US by the Clark Boat Company, Lippincott Boat Works, Nickels Boat Works, Jack A. Helms Co., Lockley Newport Boats, Skaneateles Boat & Canoe, Mobjack Manufacturing, Siddons & Sindle, Lofland Sail-craft, the Eichenlaub Boat Co, Saybrook Yacht Yard, and WindRider LLC. It was also built in Canada by J.J. Taylor and Sons Ltd.
Operational history
The boat has an active class club that regulates the design and organizes races, the International Lightning Class Association. By 1994 there were more than 460 racing fleets in Canada, Europe, South America and the United States.