HISTORY OF THE US1M
Bill Turner
Revised by Jim Linville
The US One Meter yacht is fun to sail;
it’s lightweight, fast, and responsive
to the controls. Due to its size and
quick disassembly, it’s easily transported to the
pond.
The US One Meter is a developmental class
yacht. It is 39.37 inches (one meter) in overall
length, with 600 square inches of measured
sail area. The nonrestrictive nature of the class
rules (which have been changed only once since
they were approved in 1983) encourages new
designs and experimentation. It is a relatively
inexpensive class for the beginning skipper. The
yacht can be self-designed or built from plans.
It can be purchased as a kit or as a complete
yacht, from one of several suppliers. To help
new or experienced skippers build their own
boats, several plans and a construction guide
are available on the Internet for downloading
or as hard copies from the class secretary.
History
The class got its start in early 1982.
During its beginning, it was known as the
Olympic One Meter Class. The class was originated
by Bob DeBow and Bob Jensen, of San
Diego, California. To use Bob DeBow’s words,
“the class was designed with some very good
reasons in mind.” Some simple class specifications
were drawn up. They remain basically the
same today. Materials of construction were
optional, so manufacturers who supported
our hobby would be encouraged to manufacture
boats for the class. Hulls were designed to
sail well in all weather conditions. The main
thought behind the class specifications was
that anyone with a basic knowledge of building
could gain entry to the hobby with a minimum
of expense. Bob Jensen was drawing up
plans one after another and was giving them
to anyone who wanted to plank one of these
great wooden boats.
In the latter part of 1982, the class was
rapidly gaining momentum, especially on the
West Coast where there were 23 Olympic One
Meters sailing or under construction. Some of
the hot designs of 1983 were: Sunsong, ORCO
II, Bone, Skeeter, Tadpole, and Tyro. The
Sunsong and ORCO II were available as fiberglass
short kits. The Olympic One Meter was
growing by leaps and bounds and would soon
become a class in AMYA. In the first part of
1983, it was official; the Olympic One Meter
had become a recognized class in the AMYA,
and Bob DeBow was the first class secretary.
In January 1983, the first official Olympic
One Meter Class regatta was hosted by the Rio
Salado Race Club of Arizona. Thirteen One
Meters were entered, and Bob DeBow won the
regatta, sailing a co-designed wooden hulled
Sunsong, built by Bob Jensen. Swede Johnson
was second, sailing his fiberglass ORCO II.
The first Olympic One Meter National
Championship Regatta (NCR) was also
awarded to the Rio Salado Race Club. The
regatta took place in Arizona in November
- Rio Salado club member Bob Kruft won
first place, sailing his own design, the Express.
As it turned out, four of the eight entries
were of the Express design. The Express went
on to become a very popular and fast design.
John Amen later produced the Express design
in fiberglass. Other manufacturers were also
producing fiberglass designs. Chuck Black was
pumping out the Lona, Swede Johnson was
laying up ORCO IIs, and Bob Sterne was producing
the Chinook.
By 1985, the class was still growing fast
and became a part of Race Week, which is
hosted every three years by the Argonauts in
San Diego, California, and remained a part of
this prestigious event until recently. The 1985
NCR showcased the beginning of a new design
trend: a break from the traditional wide-beam
hulls to narrow-beam hulls. Swede Johnson’s
ORCO 85 and Curt Hurley’s Squirt were both
of this narrow-beam design. Along with the
narrow beam comes less weight and less wetted
surface. The 1985 NCR had 33 entries and was
won by Bob DeBow, sailing a modified ORCO
85 wooden hull.
The 1986 NCR was hosted by the Orange
County MSC in Irvine, California. Based on
some of the things learned from Race Week
85, the regatta was somewhat of a departure
from the normal NCR of that time. With the
large number of entries, a three-frequency
conflict matrix would generally be used. This
matrix had some shortcomings as to how many
times each of the skippers raced against each
other so no frequency conflicts existed. Due to
the number of expected entries, they decided
to have a four-day regatta, which would allow
a better-distributed heat matrix. There were
thirty-two entries; they each sailed six races on
Friday and six races on Saturday to accumulate
a score. These scores were used to divide
the group into the Gold NCR fleet, which
raced on Monday, and the Silver consolation
fleet, which raced on Sunday. Sandy Littlejohn
won the Gold NCR fleet. He was sailing a
wood-planked ORCO 85 hull, which he borrowed
from Swede Johnson. Todd Olson won
the Silver fleet, sailing a fiberglass ORCO 85.
Since it was a four-day regatta, due to work
commitments there were a few no-show entries,
but the regatta was still deemed a success.
In the 1987 autumn issue of the AMYA
Quarterly Newsletter (QNL), there was a message
from AMYA President Ned Helmle concerning
the class name. He said, “I have been informed
that the United States Supreme Court
has decided that only the Olympic Committee
can use the name ‘Olympic.’ Therefore, the
Olympic One Meter Class is now the One Meter
Class.” One year later in the 1988 autumn issue
of the QNL, Bob DeBow wrote in his column,
“Since we cannot legally call our ever-growing
One Meter Class the Olympic One Meter, the
consensus among those that I have been corresponding
with feels comfortable with calling
our class the US One Meter, since the US
was its place of birth and development.” Along
with the class name change came the question
of changing the sail logo. The logo did not
need to be changed because the logo “O” represents
the first letter in the word “One,” which is
still part of the class name.
The one and only change to the class
rules came in 1989, and it is an addition to
the specification. The ballot motion M-1 was:
“It is moved that the US One Meter Class
specification diagram be revised to add an
end view controlling hull extensions that add
to the effective keel depth,” and the following
paragraph was added to Paragraph 8.0
Prohibited: as section “8.2 Any form of platform
or pedestal, as of wineglass shape, which
increases effective keel depth, except as noted
on the drawing.” The note on the specification
drawing states: “Pad or Flat in hull to facilitate
keel mounting shall not exceed 1/16” below
contour of hull.”
In October 1990, some very sad news
came to the class. Bob Jensen had passed away.
His passing was felt throughout the ranks of
the AMYA and by his many friends across the
country. He was instrumental in the founding
of the class and in designing and building
many good US One Meters.
This covers the major historical events
during the early years of the class. The class
has continued to grow, but at a somewhat
slower rate. During the past twenty years, the
number of registered yachts on the class roster
has remained about the same. That is we always
have some new registrations, but about the
same number of skippers don’t reregister their
yachts or renew their AMYA memberships and
therefore become unregistered. Based on numbers
of active skippers who are AMYA members,
we are currently the fourth-ranked class
in the AMYA.
Throughout the history of the class,
there have been five class secretaries. Bob
DeBow was our leader from the 1983 inception
of the class until he retired in midyear, - Steve Andre took over from Bob and
adeptly guided the class through midyear - When Steve stepped down, Bill Turner
was appointed to the position of secretary and
remained there through the first part of 2000.
When Bill decided to vacate the position, Jim
Linville was appointed to take over from Bill
and served until early 2006. Jay Barnes was appointed
secretary in 2006 and served for more
than a year, at which time he moved on to become
secretary of the 36-600 Class, and Jim
Linville was re-appointed in late 2007. Jim
is the current secretary of the US One Meter
Class.
An NCR has been held every year since
the class became an official class of the AMYA.
That’s 30 good years of racing in the US One
Meter Class. If you look at the NCR Class
Champions table, several things become apparent:
(1) There haven’t been too many repeat
class champions during the entire class history,
(2) Swede Johnson’s ORCO design boats have
been in the winners circle eight times, (3) Bob
Sterne’s Venom design has led the fleet to the
winners circle an impressive 13 times in the last
18 years, (4) four home-built yachts have won
our National Championship during these same
18 years, proving that it’s not only the design
that wins, and (5) over 50 percent of the NCRs
have been held in California. The NCR is supposed
to be rotated geographically if at all
possible, but it’s not easy to find clubs outside
of California that are willing to take on the
task of hosting this event. Many thanks go to
the clubs that have hosted it.