The International O.K. Dinghy is a light, responsive sailing dinghy that may be raced in fair and equal competition all over the world and yet with the freedom to appeal to the individual that is in each of us.
In 1957, Axel Dangaard Olsen of Seattle, U.S.A., asked the Danish yacht designer Knud Olsen to prepare drawings for a light and fast single-handed sailing dinghy based on conventional plywood construction. The resulting design was named the O.K., using Knud Olsen's initials in reverse.
The O.K. was intended as a preparation class for the Olympic Finn and it has followed its technical evolution ever since.
It is:
- a single handed dinghy
- 4 m long
- 1.5 m wide
- 72 kg hull weight
- hard chine construction
- built of wood, grp or 'composite'
- home built or professionally built
- sailed by men or women roughly between 60 - 95 kg
- a mast of aluminium - though this may be of wood or, experimentally, carbon fibre
- foils of wood, which may be sheathed with grp (metal centreboard is permitted)
- a sail of 8.5 square m
- comfortable side decks and 'sitting out' position
- rig, sail and controls chosen to suit the owner's physique and personal preferences
- controls which effectively control sail shape
- full and reliable buoyancy arrangements