For many years, most young sailors have learned to sail and race with the very successful Optimist. Their move up to the next size race boat, in some instances, proved to be too much. Either the "next" boat was too complicated, too intense, or their crew weight was not sufficient for an enjoyable sailing experience. And for those youths who enjoyed sailing the Opti, but are not planning on moving up to the next level of competitive sailing, the next boat up did not satisfy their youthful recreational sailing desires. That has led to many young sailors not interested in racing to leave the sport, and occasionally, the yacht club itself to pursue golf, tennis or video games!

Noted yacht designer, Jim Taylor of Marblehead, MA, spent 10 years observing these issues first hand with his and his son's involvement in their local youth program. After much thought and discussion with others in a similar situation, Jim has put pen to paper and designed the new Transit_380, a "transition" boat to satisfy those moving up the ladder as a racing/training program or for a couple of children to just go out to enjoy an afternoon of sailing.

The Transit_380 will be built in the U.S. by the well known Porter Brothers of Precision Boat Works in Palmetto, FL. All Precision models are renowned as simple, robust sailboats that all feature sweet sailing traits designed in by Jim Taylor. Nearly 3,000 Precision built-Taylor designed boats are out sailing in the USA. This collaboration of Taylor and Precision is now in its 22nd. Year and Precision Boat Works is now entering into its 28th. year of production. This combination has also produced Sailing World magazines Boat of the Year winning Precision 185. The 380 will benefit greatly from this successful and enduring design/build combination.

The Transit_380 is not an import brought in to meet a specific price, it is not a re-hash of an old design, rather, it is an all new purpose built design to meet many clubs, schools, and camp requirements.

Initially, the Transit_380 will be introduced to over 3,800 various sailing organizations in North America. The same "transition" issues that many clubs experience are shared by sailing schools, Boy & Girl Scout camps, summer camps, and community sailing organizations in all parts of North America.

We anticipate the first Transit_380 to be ready for the early fall of 2005 with very competitive pricing delivering more features than usually expected for a boat of this size. Please feel free to call for exact introductory dates.