With an estimated 56,000 boats built, the International 420 is one of the most popular centerboard dinghies in the world. The Sunfish, with more than 300,000 built, and the Laser, with over 200,000 built, have sold in higher numbers, but the International 420 is an animal of a different stripe. All three boats are small and light enough to plane, but the Sunfish and the Laser are designed for one-person sailing with a single sail, while the 420 is a two-person boat with a mainsail, jib and spinnaker.
The 420 was born in 1959 when Christian Maury, a French engineer and sailing enthusiast, joined forces with Lucien Lanaverre, owner of the Lanaverre boat building company that manufactured cold-molded 505 dinghies. Maury was keenly interested in fiberglass as a building material to take advantage of its durability and strength-to-weight ratio. To do so, he designed the 420, which was named for its length of 4.20-meters (13 feet, 9 inches).
Maury drew a hull with a long, smooth underbody and rounded chines for quick planing. He gave the 420 a beam of 5 feet, 4 inches for easy trailering and cartopping, a 3-foot, 2-inch board-down draft and a hull weight of 180 pounds. A fractional sloop rig with a large sail-area-to-weight ratio provided high performance and he included an optional trapeze for the forward crew. He also added large, integrated buoyancy tanks along each side of the cockpit, an innovative safety feature that kept the dinghy afloat in case of swamping or capsizing.
The 420’s seaworthiness and stability across a wide range of wind conditions quickly made her popular as a training platform for youth sailing programs in Europe. Lanaverre built at least 22,000 420s before the company was absorbed by Yachting France in 1976 and the design continues to be built by at least 15 companies around the globe.
Today, the 420 is recognized as an international class by World Sailing and is used as a trainer in over 45 countries. It is regarded as the logical training platform for young sailors preparing to compete in popular intercollegiate and Olympic class boats like the International 470. The International 420 is different from the Club 420, which is a heavier version built in the U.S. by Vanguard to better withstand the rigors of youth training. —John Wooldridge
This article was originally published in the June 2023 issue.
