Created out of a desire to provide young sailors with able boats of their own at a reasonable price, the O-boats as a class were created in 1921. The class was to provide a different kind of training than that available through the more common method of developing skill and experience as crew aboard the fast-but-wet racing machines of the time. So the men at John Alden's rallied to produce something with generous freeboard (especially forward), plenty of beam, and a deep cockpit. A bulkhead forward of the mast creates a watertight compartment, and the boats are said to be unsinkable as a result.
18′3″ Sloop, Alden O-Boat
