History
The El Toro design is traced back to the Richmond Yacht Club in San Francisco Bay Area around 1940. This is one of many boats derived from the MacGregor Sabot design, which was published in Rudder magazine in 1939.
The El Toro features a decked over bow, which distinguishes it from the Naples Sabot, which is the predominant Sabot style dinghy in Southern California. With the decked over bow, the El Toro is able to handle the rougher waters of the San Francisco Bay.
The El Toro name and the shovel sail insignia are attributed to being named after the 'bull sessions' that gave rise to the boat and the program.
The original El Toros were made of wood, with newer materials approved for use in the 1970s. The 1970s also saw the introduction of the self-rescuing El Toro, which includes air tanks that prevent a capsized El Toro from completely submerging.
The First El Toro was built in Berkeley, in a night school shop where Ernest(Bud) Coxhead taught boat building. Coxhead, Hal Decker and Bill Warren were instrumental in selecting the design for the Richmond Yacht Club, which wanted a small boat for use as a yacht tender and sailing dinghy.
The trio drafted the El Toro design by copying and modifying plans published in Rudder Magazine for the MacGregor Sabot, an eight foot pram.
The Richmond Yacht Club's 40 members, who had been debating possible designs at regular meetings, adopted the plan and named the boat after these bull sessions.
According to the El Toro International Yacht Racing Association, there were over 11,000 El Toros in the class in 2002.
Read more about this topic: El Toro (dinghy)
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