Description
The Kite, a compact 11-foot-6-inch fiberglass sailboat designed by California naval architect Carter Pyle as an ideal one-design racer for youth and novice sailors transitioning from prams like the Naples Sabot, debuted in 1965 under the production auspices of Newport Boats in Newport Beach, California—later rebranded as Lockley Newport Boats—and Mobjack Manufacturing Corp. in Gloucester, Virginia, embodying the era's push for affordable, trailerable dinghies that emphasized simplicity, speed, and class racing over luxury. With a sleek, low-freeboard hull displacing just 195 pounds, a Bermuda sloop rig featuring a 72-square-foot mainsail and optional spinnaker, and a shallow draft of 6 inches under its kick-up centerboard, the Kite excelled in light-air agility and ease of rigging, fostering vibrant fleets primarily along Southern California's coastal bays where it served as a rite-of-passage vessel for generations of young skippers honing tacking, jibing, and windward performance before graduating to larger boats. Though its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s saw enthusiastic class association support for regional regattas and musters, the model's popularity waned by the early 1980s amid the Laser dinghy's explosive rise—offering broader fleets, standardized parts, and international appeal—leading to discontinued production around 1980; today, the Kite endures as a rare collector's gem among vintage enthusiasts, prized for its nimble handling, historical ties to Newport's boating renaissance, and the nostalgic thrill of recapturing unadulterated daysailing joy on a budget, with surviving examples often restored using original spars, Cloos-style wooden rudders, and custom sails from legacy lofts like Ullman.
