Dinkitten - Meow!

In April I wrote a post titled "Kitten" about my introduction to sailboats back in the 1950s - an 8 1/2 foot Glasspar Dinkitten. The Dinkitten was designed by Glasspar founder Bill Tritt and featured an unstayed hollow fiberglass mast - portending things to come in the way of glass and carbon fiber spinnaker poles and large unstayed masts such as the one on the 38 foot boat sailed by Doc Häagen-Dazs.

Not a whole lot of Dinkittens were produced and I had been unable to find a photo of any. A Dinkitten owner in Newport, California happened upon this blog and offered to take some photos of his boat which he sails every summer. Mike is the original owner of DK 45 (my family had DK 58) which goes back to about 1954. He has had to repair the mast twice after broke in strong winds, and has refinished the boat a couple of times as well. Here is Mike's Dinkitten as it appears today, being sailed by Mike and his grandson.




Mike says he has only seen one other Dinkitten, one without sail being used as a tender in Avalon Harbor, Catalina Island.
Thanks again, Mike. Nice boat. I like the paint job too. Those photos bring back happy memories for me. I hope you (and your family) continue to enjoy DK 45 for years to come.
Until next, sweet sailing.