Wooden Boat AtlasDesigners, builders & classes · v3.0

Atlas / Classes & Types

designed 1937; Bay fleet founded 1952 · Norway, New England, San Francisco Bay

International One Design

Bjarne Aas, 1937 — Bay fleet from 1952

A 33-foot Norwegian keelboat that became one of the great international classes, and reached San Francisco because one man saw a photograph of one sailing.

Designer
Bjarne Aas, Fredrikstad, Norway, 1937
Recognition
The first class recognised by ISAF as a 'Classic' One-Design
Bay founding
Lon Price bought Norena (#75) in 1952 from Southern California after seeing a photograph
Recognition on the Bay
YRA of San Francisco Bay Fleet #4 from the 1955 season
Growth
6 boats by 1954; 17 by 1962; 21 by 1963; imported from Norway and England
Championships
Frank Wosser, sailing for the San Francisco fleet, won the 1965 World Championship at Bermuda. San Francisco hosted the Worlds in 1969, won by Bert Dammer, and in 1973, won by Wosser.
Sourcing notes & unresolved questions
  • Corrected 29 July 2026. This entry previously said San Francisco hosted the 1965 Worlds and that Wosser won in 1966. The International One Design World Championship list records 1965 at Bermuda, no championship held in 1966, and San Francisco hosting in 1969 and 1973. The error came from compressing a class history that named Wosser's wins without their venues.
  • The Bay fleet's founding details — Lon Price, Norena #75 in 1952, YRA Fleet #4 from 1955 — rest on the class association's own history and were not 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