Alden 512 OT Sailing Dinghy - looking for more info

floydvoid

floydvoid

LOVES Wooden Canoes
Hello,

I have been fascinated by the wood and canvas sailboat and shape of the Alden 512 that can be seen here, which are pictures from Benson I believe: http://www.stroudwater.biz/alden/

I initially inquired with Benson and read up on some threads he sent, and sent an inquiry email to MIT who holds the collection of Alden plans. Unfortunately with the pandemic I only got an auto response that nothing is happening at MIT until at least 2022.

Does anyone here own one of these boats and live in the Northeast?

Does anyone have the plans for this boat?

Someday, not soon, I'd like to entertain the idea of making one of these or something like this, unless I find something to restore, though it appears there are no many known to exist still.

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Most of the plans are available on that web site. This build did not follow the plans exactly. The plans specified oak and pine for the centerboard trunk but this one is all mahogany for example. This boat is in Nevada now. I've found build records for other examples but don't know of any that still exist. There are many similar sailboats available if you are willing to expand your criteria slightly. The pictures of this boat below from the 1930s have recently surfaced. Good luck,

Benson



Enfield-1939-a.jpg




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When I looked on the Alden site, all roads seem to lead to the MIT collections, unless I am missing something.

What other designs are similar? I have looked at the Herschoff 12 1/2 shape and boats like it - Haven, Somes Sound, but those appear to be way out of my skill set, time and size commitment. The W and C construction of the 512, size and shape with that deck and open cockpit, sloop rig are what I liked- what are some others like that?
 
The first five images at http://www.stroudwater.biz/alden/ show original plans which are now stored in the MIT collection. Old Town offered two smaller dinghies that were designed by Alden and made with wood and canvas construction although these shipped with gaff rigs. The Alden design numbers 540, 544, and 545 were also made for Old Town. The 540 and 545 designs are much more readily available so you could add a deck and change the rig on these. Several Old Town dinghies are available from https://www.islandfallscanoe.com/inventory/category/1844 if you want a new one. I have not found any indication that a 544 was ever built. They also offered a lapstrake sailboat known as the Whitecap. The best known example of this was the Tinkerbelle which sailed across the Atlantic in the 1960s. There are also examples of sails and decks being added to other small Old Town row boats. Other manufacturers like Thompson and Penn Yan made similar small sailing boats in various construction styles. Let me know if this doesn't answer your question. Thanks,

Benson
 
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Benson- your tagging of this thread recently got me going again with this idea.
Since posting, I have been working on a wooden 1959 Lightning class sailboat and nearing completion.

I checked out the MIT archive for this Alden designed boat and I have plans on the way!
This is after having emailed them initially in 2021 and never hearing back. They were moving the collections back then and the pandemic was causing delays.

Benson, do you have the pictures that were once on the stroudwater website? I believe this was your domain name, correct?
I thought I downloaded them, but I don't seem to have them anywhere.

I love the look of this Alden and I'm excited to see the full plans!
 
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