Alden “Sakonnet” Specifications:
LOA: 18′ 04″ / 5.58m – LOD: 18′ 04″ / 5.58m – LWL: 14′ 05″ / 4.39m – Beam: 6′ 03″ / 1.90m – Draft: 3′ 07″ / 1.09m – Ballast: 700 lbs / 317kg – Displacement: 2,275 lbs / 1,032kg – Sail Area: 183 sq ft – Yard Number: 662 / 694 – Hull material: Wood construction – Rig: Fractional Sloop Rig – Designer: John G. Alden – Built by: Casey Boat Building Co., Fairhaven, Massachusetts – Year First Built: 1937 – Original Number Built: 1937 (3) 1939 (10) – Current Name: – Contract Price: – Sail Number:
Early Build History:
1954-55 – Harry Towne (acquires the old Herreshoff yard) ten boats built, mahogany planked, scantlings not increased. When planks swelled, ribs split at the turn of the bilge, all boats sister-framed.
1948-40 – Harry Towne (Tiverton, Rhode Island yard lost in Hurricane of 54) – 3 boats built (cedar planked)
1947 – Palmer Scott Yard – 6 boats built
1939 – Casey Boat Building Co., 10 boats built
1937 – Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., Three boats built
Historical:
John G. Alden on sensing boat speed – Watch the form of the wake as it leaves the lee quarter. Java, an acronym derived from both John and his wife Virginia’s names, was Alden’s last boat, a Sakonnet Harry Towne (1948-49) built boat hull number twenty.
The original design was classified as design number 662 in 1937, the Hurricane of 1938, destroyed the original fleet of three boats, all being built by the Herreshoff yard in Bristol, Rhode Island. In 1938 Alden revised the design number to 694, In 1939 ten Sakonnet One-Designs were built by the Casey Boat Building Company.
The Sakonnet One Design was designed for the Sakonnet Yacht Club, Little Compton, Rhode Island, where John Alden learned how to sail. The Sakonnet featured a heavy displacement hull with a deep keel for additional stability, high freeboard for a dry ride, modest sail area and a spacious open cockpit area protected by high coamings and watertight bulkheads fore and aft, providing a very safe daysailer.
