DN

The International DN class is the most popular class in both North America and Europe. It is a one-person wood boat twelve feet long with a cross “plank” eight feet long and carries a mast 16 feet (4.9 m) high. Modern competitive DNs use flexible masts commonly made of composite materials. See idniyra.org or iceboat.org.

As noted above, the DN 60 name came from a request published in the late 1930s by the Detroit News newspaper for a design to build a relatively inexpensive one-person iceboat that showed excellent performance yet could be quickly built and sailed easily.

The high-performance, modern DN is a far cry in materials and construction from the original design selected by the Detroit News. Yet, many of its one-design features are exactly the same as the original boat, including the basic aerodynamic fuselage design, runner configurations, and 60 square feet (5.6 m2) of high-performance sail.