Welcome to the Northeast Harbor IOD Class
Welcome to the Northeast Harbor IOD Class. Mount Desert Island, Maine where the mountains meet the sea is one of the most beautiful places in the world to go sailing. Organized racing began here in the eighteen-nineties and the Northeast Harbor Fleet was established in 1923.
In 1935, the International One-Design class sloop was created by the legendary American yachtsman Cornelius Shields who commissioned designer-builder, Bjarne Aas of Fredrikstad, Norway, to develop plans for a 33 foot (10m) one-design sloop racer. The finished design was a boat with a 6 foot 9 inch (2.06 m) beam, measured 21 ft 5 in (6.53 m) at the waterline, had a draft of 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m), and displaced 7,120 lb (3,230 kg). The mast was 45 ft (13.72 m), carrying 426 square feet (40 mē) of sail. The result is a beautiful reminder of yachting's "golden age" with the traditional metre-boats' long overhangs, graceful sheer, deep, narrow hulls and lofty rigs.
In 1937, with the backing of the enthusiastic Shields, the boat was quickly adopted by the top racers on Long Island Sound. The first of the initial order of 25 yachts was delivered at City Island, New York and acquired by sailors in Long Island Sound. In 1938, the initial cost of the yacht was $2,670. Sails, spars, running rigging, cradle, insurance, and shipping charges from Norway were included in the price.
Originally known as the "Bjarne Aas One Design", the name was changed to the International One-Design sloop after sailors from Bermuda, England, Norway and Marblehead acquired boats. Today the boats are referred to as "IC's" or "IOD's".
In 1937 Barton Eddison, a member of the Northeast Harbor Fleet, spearheaded a drive to bring fourteen IOD's to Mount Desert Island. In May of 1938, the boats built in Norway arrived on the Toronto, a Norwegian freighter. The Toronto was the largest boat ever to enter the Great Harbor of Mount Desert at the time. Children were let out of school to witness the event. That summer, the first racing series of the IOD's in the Great Harbor started the long tradition of the Northeast Harbor IOD Class. Five generations of sailors over eight decades have had the privilege of racing these wonderful boats in one of the most beautiful and challenging harbors in the world.
Our fleet enjoyed a remarkable renaissance during the 1970s and '80s, doubling in size from the original 14 boats. Today, there are 28 IOD's on Mount Desert Island, making the Northeast Harbor IOD Class the largest in the world. It is also the most innovative of the 11 world-wide fleets, pioneering the use of laminated sailcloth and exploring the use of carbon fiber technology for new spars.