Hampton One-Design
Description
The Hampton One-Design (HOD) is a classic American one-design racing dinghy, designed in 1934 by Sicilian-born Hampton, Virginia boatbuilder Vincent "Pappy" Serio for the Hampton Yacht Club (HYC) to create an affordable, fast, and shallow-draft sloop suited to Chesapeake Bay's waters. Serio built the first ~500 wooden hulls himself (starting with #1 "Jasyto" for $325); fiberglass was allowed from 1961/1963 (pioneered by BOW Marine), with at least 60+ GRP boats. Total built: ~900+ as of 2025, with new fiberglass hulls from Mathews Brothers LLC (Denton, MD). The class association (formed 1938) remains strict one-design—wooden boats still win against modern GRP ones. It's one of Chesapeake Bay's most enduring classes (90+ years active), with ~11 fleets, 20+ annual events, and a resurgence since the 1990s including junior/college programs. Key updates: Trapeze (1962), aluminum spars, self-bailing cockpits for GRP. No spinnaker/genoa—just main + jib for pure skill-based racing.
Construction Details
| Designer | Vincent "Pappy" Serio |
|---|---|
| Builder | Mathews Brothers LLC (Denton, MD). |
| Length | 18.000 ft |
| LOA | 18.000 ft |
| LWL | 14.000 ft |
| Beam | 5.790 ft |
| Displacement | 755 lb |
| Max Draft | 3.500 ft |
| Min Draft | 0.590 ft |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Documents
Sails
Hampton One-Design - MAINSAIL
| Luff | 21.729 ft - (6623 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 10.25 ft - (3124 mm) |
| Leech | * 23.06 ft - (7029 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 85.28 ° |
| Diagonal | 23.25 ft - (7087 mm) |
| Head (inches) | 4 in - (102 mm) |
| Area | * 114.15 ft² |
| Edit in Calculator | |
Hampton One-Design - JIBSAIL
| Luff | 16 ft - (4877 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 6.83 ft - (2082 mm) |
| Leech | 14.395 ft - (4388 mm) |
| Length Perpendicular | 6.08 ft - (1853 mm) |
| Area | * 49.16 ft² |
| Edit in Calculator | |
Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.