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Yacht Yards Sparkman & Stephens | Sparkman & Stephen |
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Olin J. Stephens started his sailing carer on the Barnstable Bay in Massachusetts and already at the young age of 21 he joined an established yacht broker company as a partner with the support from his father. The company he joined was Drake Sparkman and the new company name became Sparkman & Stephens Inc.
Soon after the launch of the new company the world went in to recession with the start of the “Great Depression” and orders for new yacht designs dried out. Stephens father was the one to become the companies saviour. During the depression he gambled and ordered a new yacht from his sons company. The father decided that it was to be an ocean racing yacht and the name of the yacht was “Dorade”. Dorade won the 1931 Trans-Atlantic Race and therefore the yacht became much publicized and this was the start of Sparkman & Stephens Inc’s reputation as a first class yacht design company. Dorade is still a famous yacht, not only for her success in the Trans-Atlantic Race but also for her design features such as her vents, today tall vents are called “Dorades” on sailing yachts During the following half century Sparkman & Stephens designed yachts would pretty much change the whole aperance of yachting with many success full racing and crusing designes. Sparkman & Stephens fame soon led them to designing J-class yachts, the ultimate in yacht designing of the time. In 1937 Sparkman & Stephens designed the J-class yacht Ranger that came to win the Americas Cup with no one else then Olin Stephens at the helm! Another very successful design from Sparkman & Stephens was the International 12m Rule yacht Vim in 1938. Vim was ordered from Sparkman & Stephens as a through bread racing machine, everything on the yacht was to be there for racing and nothing but racing! The Int 12mR yacht Vim was also the first 12 to have rod rigging and an all aluminum spar package. In 1939 Vim was shipped over to England for racing and basicly swept the competiton away and won easily over other well known racing yachts such as Tomahawk. Vim was put in storage during the war but was to come out and prove herself as a fast design, or rather the leading design in 12mR still 20 years later! This proved to many that American yacht design was years ahead of the European yacht designers at the time. Sparkman & Stephens continued designing yachts for America Cup when it turned to the int 12mR yachts as the select yacht class, and in many ways they stayed the leading International Meter Rule designers for many years to come! |
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