i550 Sportboat
Description
The i550 (also called the i550 sportboat) is a high-performance 18-foot (5.5 m) trailerable sportboat designed by Chris Beckwith in 2007. It's built for amateur home builders using stitch-and-glue plywood (typically ¼" / 6 mm marine ply), epoxy, and fiberglass sheathing, with a sharpie-style hull inspired by historic Long Island Sound sharpies. The design prioritizes speed, planing ability, simplicity, and fun sailing — it's a one-design class (i550class.org) with a welcoming builder community and many examples worldwide (North America, Australia, Europe, etc.). It's known for thrilling performance (plane off the wind, double-digit speeds in breeze), shallow draft for trailering/beaching, and easy modifications while staying class legal.
Construction Details
| Designer | Chris Beckwith |
|---|---|
| Builder | Home Built |
| Length | 18.000 ft |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | 20 ft |
|---|---|
| j | 7.46 ft |
| p | 23.30 ft |
| e | 9 ft |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 ft | 7.46 ft | 23.30 ft | 9 ft | - | - | - | - |
Sails
i550 Sportboat - MAINSAIL
| Luff | * 23.3 ft - (7102 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | * 9 ft - (2743 mm) |
| Leech | * 24.49 ft - (7465 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 88 ° |
| Diagonal | * 24.68 ft - (7522 mm) |
| Head (inches) | * 4 in - (102 mm) |
| Area | * 108.15 ft² |
| Edit in Calculator |
i550 Sportboat - JIBSAIL
| Luff | * 17.08 ft - (5206 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 7.458 ft - (2273 mm) |
| Leech | 20 ft - (6096 mm) |
| Percentage LP | * 97.88 % |
| Length Perpendicular | * 7.3 ft - (2225 mm) |
| Deck Angle | * -32.4 ° |
| Area | * 62.32 ft² |
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i550 Sportboat - ASYMMETRICAL
| Luff | * 20.28 ft - (6181 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | * 12.31 ft - (3752 mm) |
| Leech | * 18.66 ft - (5688 mm) |
| Perc LP | * 165 % |
| Area | * 187 ft² |
| Edit in Calculator |
Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.
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