Olin Stephens Celebrates 100th Birthday in April

Sparkman & Stephens is celebrating its storied past and looking ahead to its future with in a series of milestone events this summer.

The company, founded in 1929, has been a veritable breeding ground for some of the best-known yacht designers and naval architects in the world. None among them though, holds the stature of company co-founder Olin J. Stephens II. Stephens, who turns 100 in April, is the subject of several celebrations in his honor.

By any measure, a man who has lived a hundred years has lived a full life. But some centenarians live fuller lives than others. Stephens is a case in point. The soon-to-be-centenarian is still building on a legacy that began in the 1920s with seminal early offshore racing yachts such as Dorade and Stormy Weather, and carried through countless small-boat designs, the influential J-Class America's Cup yacht Ranger and a number of the most revered early 12-Meters including Columbia, Constellation and Intrepid.

S&S, the New York Yacht Club and several other entities have planned a number of events this summer on the East Coast and in Europe to recognize the man whose life and work has so deeply impacted the worlds of yacht racing and cruising for eight decades. The first of these events will be in Holland May 30-June 2 with the Annual General Meeting of the Sparkman & Stephens Association. The group, which comprises owners of S&S boats, will compete in the Olin Stephens Regatta and participate in a long weekend of festivities saluting the designer's centennial birthday.

The New York Yacht Club, which has weighed so heavily in Stephens's success and that of S&S, is hosting a classic yacht regatta in his honor in Newport, Rhode Island, July 19-20. The club is planning an elaborate birthday party celebration for him at its Harbour Court facility. In another tribute to Stephens, S&S in conjunction with Doyle Sailmakers and the Castine Yacht Club will host a birthday party for Stephens at Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Following the party, a number of S&S designs will join the fleet racing from Marblehead to Castine, Maine. The race will lead into Down East Race Week in August. Last year, the S&S-designed Anna - an updated version of Stephens's famous Stormy Weather - won her class and placed first in elapsed time in the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, which is part of the Down East event.

Given Olin's centennial celebration, more S&S yachts are expected to participate in the Down East Race Week this year than ever before.

 

wow, a century and still alive....what a grand inning

 

Well I must join the Queen in congratulating Olin Stephens on his efforts in putting his name to some mighty fine boats

 

OLIN STEPHENS - 100th Birthday on April 13
Dateline: 4/9/2008. April 13 marks the 100th birthday of American design doyan Olin Stephens. To celebrate the work of this Centurian of Sail, PPL has pulled together an historic archive of pictures covering the major design successes that he and his brother Rod Stephens produced from 1929 onwards. Their prolific design firm, Sparkman & Stephens (S&S) still based on 5th Avenue, New York, was responsible for designing such diverse craft as the World War II DUKW amphibious landing vehicle, their own Atlantic and Fastnet race winner Dorade, a string of 12Metre America's Cup winners from Columbia to Courageous, and iconic maxi yachts like Kialoa III, and early Whitbread round the world race winners Sayula II and Flyer
The Stephens picture archive is part of PPL’s wider Watersports and Sub Aqua on-line library, that allows users to search, and browse screen res images. Once you register, users can then download high res. files at any time
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Dorade
Dorade was one of the first offshore yacht designs drawn by Olin and Rod for their Father Olin Stephens Snr. Built in 1929, this 52ft yawl did most to establish Olin and Rod at the forefront of yacht design. She not only won the 1931 Atlantic and Fastnet races outright, but gained a class win in the 1932 Bermuda Race. The yacht was recently restored in Italy and Olin was guest of honour at her re-launch.To view the lightbox of selected images Click Here



Wartime DUKW
The famous World War II amphibious DUKW (nic-named the DUCK) was developed by Rod and Olin on a standard GMC 6-wheel truck chassis and served with distinction at the Normandy D-Day landings, as well as in the Mediterranean theatre. Some 21,247 units were built. Fitted with a light steel body, they had a design life in combat situations of just 24 hours, so it is remarkable that so many remain is use 6 decades later .Click Here to view the lightbox of selected images



Bermuda Race winners
The biennual Bermuda Race has long been a proving ground for Sparkman & Stephens designs. Their own yacht Dorade won Class B in 1932, followed by Edlu which won overall honours in 1934. Baruna did the same in 1938, Blitzen won Class B the same year, Good News won Class A in 1946 and line honours in 1958, Mustang (owned by Rod Stephens) won Class B in 1952, Bolero (right) won line honours in 1950 and set a record time in 1956. Finisterre won Class D together with the Lighthouse Trophy in 1956, and '58 and Running Tide won Class A in 1970 and '76, together with the overall honours. Click Here to view a lightbox of selected images



Olin - the Father of modern tank testing
Olin Stephens did much to develop the methodology for gaining accurate model test tank results by comparing the full size results of two 6-Metre designs, Jack & Jill against those gained from running models in the tank testing facility at the Davidson Laboratory, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. From 1958 to 1967, this lab tested the America's Cup 12 Metre designs of Columbia, (pictured) Weatherly & Constellation - all Olin Stephens designs.



S&S Maxi yachts
Kialoa III, (right) the 79ft S&S design maxi owned by Jim Kilroy broke the Sydney to Hobart Race record in 1975 and held that mark for 21 years. She also won the Transatlantic, Transpac, China Sea and dominated the Maxi World championships during the early 1980s. Other equally notable Stephens designed ocean racing yachts included the Swan 65 Sayula II, winner of the first Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, and Flyer, another S&S designed ketch which Dutchman Conny van Rietschoten won the 1977/8 Whitbread Race. Click Here to preview selected images.



America's Cup
Olin Stephens' most famous America's Cup yacht is undoubtedly the 12 Metre Courageous which Ted Turner steered to victory in 1974. She won again in 1977. This evergreen design was still competing for the Cup in 1986/7. Other S&S Cup designs included the J Class yacht Ranger, and 12M yachts Columbia, Vim, Constellation, Intrepid, Valiant and Enterprise. Click Here to view a lightbox of selected images from PPL's Cup archive.



'An Absorbing Interest'
The definitive book on the America's Cup
The America's Cup A History 1851 - 2003 by Bob Fisher
Winner of the 2007 YJA/Whyte & Mackay Book of the Year Award

Read all about the Stephens influence on the America's Cup in this beautifully designed double volume casebound work which charts the history of sailing's most enigmatic and greatest prize. Covering the drama, boat design, personalities and sheer fascination of the America's Cup, from 1851 in Cowes to 2003 in Auckland, the books, lavishly illustrated with photographs, cartoons, paintings and figures, can rightly claim to be the definitive history. A limited edition. Your last opportunity to secure one of the few remaining copies of this collectors edition, signed by the author. Click here to sample pages and Order on-line.

 

I am privileged to share the same birthday with this great man