[MHml] The World's First Monomaran...

[R.A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


  Delivered-To: rah at shipwright.com
  Delivered-To: clips at philodox.com
  Date: Sat, 4 Nov 2006 20:29:54 -0500
  To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
  From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Olin Stephens's Radical Yacht
  Reply-To: clips-chat at philodox.com
  Sender: clips-bounces at philodox.com

  <http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB116258439064312856.html>

  The Wall Street Journal




  MASTERPIECE

  Olin Stephens's Radical Yacht

  Dorade is 75; its maker is 98 -- and they both remain (sea)worthy of
admiration

  By G. BRUCE KNECHT

  November 4, 2006; Page P14

  Olin Stephens's obsession with sailboats took hold shortly after World War
  I during a childhood visit to Cape Cod. He didn't just admire them. He
  studied them with what he later described as "great concentration,"
  sketching any he thought might be worth emulating and imagining how he
  might do things differently.

  By the time he was 20, Mr. Stephens had dropped out of M.I.T., had brief
  apprenticeships with several leading yacht designers, drawn up plans for a
  handful of small boats, and formed his own company, Sparkman & Stephens. On
  the basis of Olin's early promise, his father, who had recently sold the
  family coal-supply business, placed an order for a relatively large yacht,
  a 52-foot yawl. When Dorade, named for the dolphin that is correctly
  spelled Dorado, was launched in 1931, it sparked a revolution.

  It was strikingly slender, its beam just 10-foot-3. It was also, by the
  standards of the day, extremely lightweight, in part because the frames
  that supported the hull were made from steam-bent sections of wood weighing
  far less than conventional and much bulkier sawn frames. Until then, it was
  believed that ocean-going stability could not be achieved without a much
  broader and heavier hull. Dorade's stability came from a different source
  -- a lengthy lead keel that put the ballast far below the waterline, where
  it would be much more effective in counterbalancing the force of the wind.

  Thanks to the combination of a streamlined hull and "outside ballast," Mr.
  Stephens was certain Dorade would be fast. It was also strikingly
  beautiful. Like most designers of that time, he believed boats that were
  pleasing to the eye were also faster than unattractive ones. Dorade's bow
  and stern rose from the water with curvaceous grace, creating the elegant
  overhangs that are hallmarks of classic sailing yachts.

  But Dorade represented a major risk. Mr. Stephens had created a radical new
  design without the computer analysis and tank testing that is now
  commonplace. He had relied upon instincts alone, intuitive judgments of how
  a vessel's lines would affect its performance. The lack of precision was
  obvious the moment Dorade was launched: The white stripe that had been
  painted around the hull to mark the waterline disappeared as it sank three
  inches below the surface. When Mr. Stephens announced that he was going to
  enter Dorade in a trans-Atlantic race, many yachtsmen thought he was
  foolhardy.

  Mr. Stephens was the skipper and navigator during the race, which set out
  for England from Newport, R.I., on July 4, 1931. His seven-man crew, which
  included his younger brother Rod, who had overseen the yacht's construction
  and would become a partner in Sparkman & Stephens, was young: Even with the
  inclusion of the Mr. Stephens's 46-year-old father, the average age was
  just 22.

  Olin Stephens was at the helm when Dorade crossed the finish line on July
  31. Longer sailboats generally go faster than shorter ones, but Dorade, the
  third smallest of the 10-yacht fleet, reached the line more than two days
  before the second-place boat. When the times were handicapped, or
  "corrected," to reflect the differences among the yachts, Dorade's time was
  almost four days better than its closest rival. Dorade went on to win the
  Fastnet Race by a wide margin. When the crew returned to New York City,
  where Sparkman & Stephens had its office, they were rewarded with a
  ticker-tape parade, a first for sailors.

  And yacht design would never be the same. The assumptions that had limited
  naval architects to incremental advances were abandoned and the modern age
  of racing design, defined by an endless quest to produce lighter but more
  powerful yachts, commenced. No one benefited from this more than Mr.
  Stephens, who became the most successful designer of the 20th century,
  creating plans for six successful America's Cup defenders, two of which
  were two-time winners.

  Dorade also became a legend. The Stephens family sold it in 1936, but
  successor owners have underwritten the ceaseless work of maintaining an
  aging wooden vessel. In recent years, it was based in the Mediterranean,
  where an Italian owner competed in Europe's active classic yacht racing
  circuit. But since it was acquired by Edgar Cato, an accomplished American
  yachtsman, about a year ago, it has been based in Newport. "It was a piece
  of history that I had read about for most of my life -- and I decided that
  I wanted to bring it back to the United States," Mr. Cato explained.

  Over Labor Day weekend, he and Mr. Stephens, now 98 but still traveling to
  yachting events around the world from his home in Hanover, N.H., boarded
  Dorade to compete in the Museum of Yachting's annual Classic Yacht Regatta
  in Narragansett Bay. Although Mr. Stephens himself advised the crew on the
  most favorable sail combinations, Dorade placed second after a section of
  the rigging failed in winds gusting to more than 30 knots. "We would have
  won otherwise," said Mr. Cato, who plans to continue racing Dorade in the
  Caribbean and New England.

  Unfailingly modest, Mr. Stephens is reluctant to rate Dorade as a
  masterpiece. When I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, he said it was too
  narrow, that it would go even faster, and be less "rolly," if he had given
  it just a bit more breadth. But he acknowledged that Dorade was a
  breakthrough -- or, as he put it, "a kind of awakening" -- for yachting
  design. "I knew that a lighter boat with outside ballast was the way to go,
  and that a deep and narrow hull would go through the sea nicely. It was
  obvious. It was like taking candy from a baby. It just had to win."

  Mr. Knecht is a Journal reporter and the author of "Hooked: Pirates,
  Poaching and the Perfect Fish."

  --
  -----------------
  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
  [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
  _______________________________________________
  Clips mailing list
  Clips at philodox.com
  http://www.philodox.com/mailman/listinfo/clips

--- end forwarded text


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'