Beta Marine

Beta Marine

Sailboat Specifications

Definitions
Hull Type: Keel/Cbrd.
Rigging Type: Fractional Sloop
LOA: 21.17 ft / 6.45 m
LWL: 16.75 ft / 5.11 m
S.A. (reported): 197.00 ft² / 18.30 m²
Beam: 6.25 ft / 1.91 m
Displacement: 1,750.00 lb / 794 kg
Ballast: 450.00 lb / 204 kg
Max Draft: 3.83 ft / 1.17 m
Min Draft: 1.50 ft / 0.46 m
Construction: Wood lapstrake/FG
First Built: 1921
# Built: 103
Builder: Lawson's Boat yard, William Chamberlain (MA) and Reed-Cook (ME) (USA)
Designer: John G. Alden/Sam Crocker

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Sailboat Calculations

Definitions
S.A. / Displ.: 21.75
Bal. / Displ.: 25.71
Disp: / Len: 166.24
Comfort Ratio: 13.02
Capsize Screening Formula: 2.08
Hull Speed: 5.48 kn
Pounds/Inch Immersion: 374.06 pounds/inch

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Notes

Alden design #148.
There were three Indian design plans per the Alden archives now held by the MIT Museum: #148, a centerboard lapstrake version shown here; #293 a modified full keel lapstrake (see PEQUOT-BLACK ROCK OD); and #398 a centerboard carvel planked (see NANTUCKET ONE-DESIGN).
Sam Crocker worked for the John Alden firm at this time.
Regarding design #148... It has been said by a well-known Massachusetts learned boat builder that the Indian design was inspired by C.D. Mower's 1898 Swampscott racing dory, a boat which was later known as the X-Class Dory. The Indian improved on the Mower design by using fore-, side- and aft-decks making the hull stiffer and the occupants drier, as well as making the boat much less prone to swamp so it could be sailed harder. The Indian also used either gaff- or Marconi-rigs using a larger sail plan than the leg-o-mutton used on the X-Class dory. They were considered to be very fast in the hands of an experienced skipper and often outgunned larger boats on the same course. The Indians were originally and remarkably intended as training boats for the Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead Massachusetts, but they were not suited for beginners, so Fred Riley of the Squantum (Mass) YC bought them (3) and kept one, selling the others to club members. These raced in the Boston Bay area from 1922 to 1926, when the group of 20 so-called Squantum Racing Dories were organized into a larger association called the Mass Bay Marconi Indians, as proposed by SqYC's Ed Gallagher Sr. This group copied their charter from the Mass Bay 18-footers (I-Class and MI-Class boats) and had their first formal interclub events in 1927 among five of the area yachts clubs, including Squantum which coined the class name Indian. Lawson's boat yard, in Dorchester Mass, built the first 3 boats in 1921, and others soon followed once the nearby Squantum YC obtained them. By 1926 there were 6 at South Boston YC and 14 at Squantum YC. 20 new boats were intended for the 1927 season, and race results from the period suggest that they were all built. By 1951 the class neared 100 boats in the Boston-Marblehead region alone, not counting those built for the Cape and Islands, or in Long Island. There were numerous boat shops that built Indians including Reid's shop in Winthrop, George Chaisson's shop in Swampscott, and Lowell's shop in Amesbury. They were also built by their owners. Archie Hayes sr and jr built one in the sail loft of Wilson & Silsby, in Boston in 1930 under the weather eye of the Mass Bay Indian class measurer George Rolt. Rolt built at least 3 and as many as 7 in his South Boston boat shop during the 1930s-1950s, and was the first Mass Bay Indian champion in Gosling in 1927. Many years later, an Indian was measured and a mold made for fiberglass hull builds, probably in the 1970s. Woodenboat (magazine) still sells Indian plan #148, and of course the original Alden/Crocker material for the Indian now resides at the MIT Museum, within the John Alden Collection.

Photo: Massachusetts Bay Indians #10 Mohawk (foreground) with #14 Pelican II astern in a 1932 Leslie Jones collection photo 08_06_013229 during Quincy Race Week. Mohawk carries the South Boston Yacht Club Indian class head insignia while Pelican II has the Squantum YC hachet insignia. Both boats were probably built in 1925-1926. Mohawk was the 1932 Mass Bay Indian season champion.

Thanks to Kenneth D. Rolt for the above historical information.

Additional information:
Spinnaker: 250 sq.ft.
At least one fiberglass version was built. (Nereia Yachts, NC, USA)

(There was an earlier one design class called the INDIAN, (1913), from the design firm of William Gardner, and built by Thorpe Brothers of Nyack, NY., for members of Shattemuc Y.C., Ossening, NY.
It is thought that no more than a dozen were built.)