An eight-foot pram that came out of a bull session at the Richmond Yacht Club, took a shovel as its sail insignia in tribute to the joke, and became one of the most-built sailing dinghies in America.
- Origin
- Richmond Yacht Club 'bull sessions', 1939–40; a Sabot pram published in The Rudder in 1939 was the starting point, modified with daggerboard, rudder and cat rig
- Redesign
- Fall 1940, per Richmond YC's own history; the first boat built in a club night-school class
- Name
- From the bull sessions; the class insignia is a shovel
- Formalised
- Bill Warren surveyed existing boats and drafted the first specification; 95 skippers met at Richmond YC in April 1946 and elected Hal Decker first class chairman
- Growth
- 200th hull 1949; 1,000th 1955; 2,000th 1959; about 3,500 by 1963; over 11,000 eventually
- Hull
- 8-ft pram, about 80 lb rigged; daggerboard, transom-hung rudder, cat rig
Sourcing notes & unresolved questions
- The designer of the parent Sabot pram is given in one source as 'Charles MacGregor' or 'McGregor' — the spelling was not resolved.
- The detail of ninety-five skippers meeting at Richmond Yacht Club in April 1946 to elect Hal Decker as first class chairman appears only on the class association's own history page. The origin story and the 11,000-plus total are independently corroborated.
Wooden Boat Atlas v3.0 · built 30 July 2026 · a project of the Golden Gate Wooden Boat Foundation · licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · open data · corrections