As the name suggests, the 420 has a length of 0 meters. It was designed as a two-person youth dinghy and has been built since 1960.Initially without spinnaker and harness, he was also gladly sailed single-handed. Known manufacturers of the 420 are Nautivela, Baranowski, Mackay, Eastwave , Lenam and Ziegelmayer.

The 420 is a sporty round span trapeze dinghy, in which the two side tanks serve as buoyancy bodies and which make this unsinkable. The boat has been granted international status by World Sailing (WS) and is very widely used around the world as a youth class. In many sailing clubs the 420 is established as a continuative boat after the Optimist and is supposed to introduce the young generation to 2-person sailing. Meanwhile, however, the 420 is slowly replaced more and more often by the 29er.

Dimensions of the 420: 0 m length, 3 m width, weight 100 kg, sail area 15 sqm, spinnaker 9 sqm.