Y Flyer

Sailboat class

The Y Flyer is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by Alvin Youngquist in 1938 as a one design racer and first built in 1941.

The boat design was first shown in The Rudder magazine in 1938, as plans for amateur construction. Homebuilding of the boat from spruce and plywood continued after fiberglass boats were commercially available. George Hinterhoeller was establishing his boat building enterprise Hinterhoeller Limited in 1956, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. He built 40 Y Flyers as his first production boat, "before the market dried up".

The Y Flyer is a recreational sailboat, initially built predominantly of wood, later versions were constructed of fiberglass, with wood trim. It has a flexible fractional sloop rig with wooden or aluminum spars and a rotating mast. The hull is a scow design, with a flat bottom, a reverse sheer and a hard hull chine. The hull features a vertical transom, a transom hung rudder controlled by a tiller and a retractable steel or aluminum centerboard. It displaces
By 1994 there were Canadian fleets in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. American fleets were located in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia and South Carolina. There were also fleets in the US
northeast and on the Pacific coast. In a 1994 review Richard Sherwood wrote, "The Y Flyer has a hard chine and flat bottom and is unusually stable. A slight heel reduces wetted surface dramatically, however, as may be seen from the [Portsmouth] rating."