The Shannon One Design sailing dinghy is an open centreboard sailing boat raced on the River Shannon, Lough Derg and Lough Ree in Ireland. The boats are long by beam, drawing with her centreboard down. They have a sail area of 140 square feet (15.6m2) set in a single sail, giving the boat what is called a gunter rig. History During the 19th and early 20th century racing was organised for 18'-0" long open centre board boats with one sail on the Shannon lakes. These boats were effectively a restricted class, restricted by length, beam and sail area. different lakeside and riverside builders adapted their traditional rowing boats to meet an owners preferences. The creation of the Shannon One Design sailing dinghy came about after a meeting of representatives of Lough Ree Yacht Club, Lough Derg Yacht Club and North Shannon Yacht Club (Lough Boderg) held in the Prince of Wales Hotel, Athlone, on 29 January 1920. The committee commissioned a leading British designer of the time, F.C. Morgan-Giles. Later that year Morgan-Giles delivered the plans. The first boat was ordered from Walter Levinge of Creaghduff, Coosan, Athlone, Co.Westmeath and delivered in 1921. This boat was built with a more powerful Gunther rig, and not the balanced lug as designed. The centre board as installed was of almost half the weight originally intended by F.C.M.G. (Ref) talk by Vincent Delany at LRYC February 2020 (/ref) All of this results in a dynamic dinghy. Builders Walter Levinge: Creaghduff - 32 - 38 and all boats up to 117 not listed below. Merne: No.39. Charlie Ward: No.42. Patrick Keneavy: No. 50. Eddie Gray: Dun Laoghaire - No. 70. Tommy Gallagher: No.71. Lomax: No. 79, 81, 87, 89, 90, 94. Quigley: No. 99, 104, 105, 115, 116, 119, 120, 123 - 127, 138, 141, 143, 152. Jimmy Furey: No. 107, 112, 113, 121, 128 - 131, 139, 140, 144 - 150, 153 - 156. Erik Goodbody: No. 142, 151 Sailing The "SOD" or "Shannon" as the class is often called requires three people to race and this produces a very sociable form of sailing. Sailing SODs has always attracted families, and generations in many cases have been involved in campaigning the same boat down through the years. Indeed, many of the same family names that attended that first meeting in 1920 still feature in SOD racing today. The SOD is an exciting boat