O'Day Corporation became one of the largest sailboat manufacturers in the US but most of that story happened after the period in which we have interest. What we are interested in is the period from around 1956 to 1966 when George O'Day, a top level racing sailor, with the help of his 'Associates' got this company going. Separating the man and his company in this period is hard to do but we are going to try. Click here to go to George O'Day, "the man who loved to sail", and read more about him.

O'Day had an interesting corporate beginning. In the 1950's George O'Day had been selling boats built by others, including both US and european builders, using the entity name of G. D. O'Day Associates, Inc in Boston, MA. He was a big believer in the future of fiberglass boats and frustrated with his european dinghy suppliers' reluctance to switch to fiberglass. His decision in 1958 to get Uffa Fox to design the Daysailer, which would go on to sell over 7000 boats, meant that he would have to obtain fiberglass manufacturing sources and know how in the US.

George O'Day had been a sales agent for Palmer Scott's Marscot Plastics Company selling their Rhodes 19, among other boats. Palmer Scott was an early fiberglass power and sail boat pioneer, and also formerly built both large and small high quality wood sail and power boats. His yard in New Bedford, MA was destroyed in the major hurricane of 1954. To read more about Palmer Scott and his very interesting boat building career click here.

In 1958 Palmer moved his company's business, equipment and experienced workforce from New Bedford to a mill building O'Day reportedly bought for $10,000 in Fall River, MA. Eventually O'Day acquired Marscot Plastics but exactly when is not clear. It seems pretty clear Palmer Scott was one of George's 'Associates'. The 1960 Dolphin 24 brochure says that Marscot Plastics is a division G.D. Associates, Inc.

The first Dolphins were built in 1960 by Palmer Scott and Marscot Plastics for G. D. O'Day Associates, Inc. This can be seen by looking at the name plate of hull #10, Passage. Click here to see it. Marscot Plastics may have been experiencing financial difficulties in this period due to problems they had with some fiberglass boats they had built for the US Navy in the late 1950's. In any event, at some point, Palmer Scott reportedly swapped his Marscot Plastics business for stock in the newly formed O'Day Corporation. Together they would produce and sell the O'Day Daysailer, Marscot's Rhodes 19 and other small fiberglass boats then being produced by Marscot, plus other boats George had in mind. With this move George O'Day's O'Day Corporation obtained one of the pioneer fiberglass boat builders in the US and the critical manufacturing experience he needed to launch his company.

This interest in fiberglass boats, and his awareness of the outstanding racing success of the Shaw 24 MORC racer Trina, led him to Sparkman & Stephens where Bill Shaw worked as a designer. The result was a commission to design a "Junior Ocean Racer' in fiberglass which Marscot Plastics would build for him.

Phil Zerega, who in 1960/61 built Teal ( your webmaster's Marionette) on a bare O'Day hull (#12), took some pictures of the Marscot/O'Day plant on his visits in 1960. Click here to see them.

Found in the S7&S files was this picture of Hull #1 which was the 1960 NY Boat Show boat and which was delivered to Dick Bertram who had a yacht brokerage business in Miami. Click to go to a larger view and more - including a beautiful dolphin interior.

Marscot/O'Day employed at least 3 other companies to build Dolphins in the early 60s - Lunn Laminates of Port Washington, NY, F.L. Tripp & Sons of Westport, MA, and J.J. Taylor & Sons of Toronto, Canada. Initially, a fire at the Marscot Fair Haven plant in 1960 was the reason for the first subcontracting to Lunn Laminates, but it also seems that the Dolphin may not have fit in well with other manufacturing going on at the plant.

Another 'associate' of O'Day was Bob Larson, a dinghy racing friend of George's, who, with other O'Day investors, formed a company in late 1960 called US Yachts. This company was to handle the sales and marketing of the Dolphin and other boats from 1961-1964. Some sales literature in this period says the company was an affiliate of O'Day

Thus George O'Day and Associates appears to really be an idea company whose "Associates" designed, built and sold his boats - including the Dolphin. At some point in 1958-1960 Marscot Plastics was acquired, and in 1964 the sales and marketing responsibility, then at US Yachts, was brought in house. These consolidations became the O'Day Corporation. In 1966, Bangor Punta acquired O'Day, and also Jensen Marine maunfactured the Cal 24 and other boats. Despite its excellent racing reputation the Dolphin 24 had been suffering for years from poor sales and lack of attention and support by O'Day. With the urging of Sparkman & Stephens O'Day stopped making the Dolphin and S&S designed an updated version which was to become the Yankee Dolphin. The process by which all this happened is a fascinating and as yet incomplete story. But we are working on it                    

The 1960 O'Day original Sales Brochure (click here to see it)

Larry Taylor (Black Dolphin Lunn Hull # 219) sent in a price list with different options and accessories dated March 30, 1960. Click here to see it

(To be continued)