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Olin Stephens, Yacht Designer |
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Olin Stephens started his yacht designing at the age of just 19. Olin grew up with a love for boats, aesthetics and beauty. This lead him to become one of the most famous yacht designers in history. As he had no formal education in designing boats he studied 1000’s of boats and designs to learn. The yact desing business was started together with his brother, Rod, in 1931.
Olin Stephens first success came with the design of the yacht Dorade, it was an ocean racing yacht and Olin Stephens always claimed that its success on the racing circuite came from only luck. Dorade won the Transpac in 1936 and now Olin Stephens started designing the highly popular Int.6mR yachts. Soon he developed in to designing Int.8mR yachts and finally a J-Class yacht. The J-Class yacht was the Ranger, the boat to defend the Americas Cup in 1937.
Several other America Cup boats where designed by Sparkman & Stephens including such famous yachts as Columbia, Constellation, Freedom, two-time winners Intrepid and Courageous.
In order to test their designs at an early stage Stephens and his brother joined with Kenneth Davidson to develop small models to test there designs. Using model boats, the sailing angle and heel angle could be tested, tired and measured. With this knowledge and the boat dimensions, they pre calculated the force delivered to the sails and rigg and ultimately the estimated speed the boat could atchive. Model testing became the hallmark of Sparkman & Stephens and led to many breakthrough designs throughout the years to come.
Perhaps Olin Stephens' greatest influence on the sailing community was the role he and his brother Rod played in the development of the measurement rules. He is still active in the continuing discussions about those rules and presently serves on the International Measurement System Committee.
Yachts Designed by Olin Stephens: Dorade
Ranger
Columbia
Constellation
Freedom
Intrepid
Courageous |
Yacht Designers 