Alan was our first down under contact with the fin keeled Dolphins. Logan City is on Australia's east coast in the southeast corner of Queensland between Brisbane and Gold Coast.His Blue Gum is undergoing a major refit/tranformation at her new home in Australia. Alan has been very helpful in getting information on these Dolphin cousins. To find out more about these boats click here

Here is Alan's first email contact with the website:

                                                                                           July 20, 2007

Dear Sir,

I have just come across your Dolphin 24 web site. One of the headings says "Dolphin with fixed keel" and gives a small amount of information.

I really don't know very much of the history of this design but can tell you that quite a number (over 50 I think) were built in New Zealand in fibreglass. The first ones had the conventional coach house, essentially the same as the Dolphin, and were simply called an S&S 24.

 A little later a new deck and coach house was designed (I don't know who by - but not S&S) which looks more racy and has a little more headroom. This model was called an S&S 24 Falcon. Up until about ten years ago there was an active owner's assoc for these designs in the Auckland area.(NZ)

I purchased a S&S 24 Falcon about 10 yrs ago when I was living there and sailed it around the Auckland region for a number years. When I came back to Australia to live I shipped it back with me. Currently I am in the process of doing a major refit on it inc installing a Yanmar 1GM diesel engine instead of the outboard it had. The design of the Falcon deck/cabin had a number of major flaws.and part of the refit I am doing is to correct them. I will have 5ft 8in headroom in the main cabin when finished.

S&S 24's are a beautiful little sailing boat and they don't change hands very often as a result. As you will no doubt be aware NZ has a lot of heavy weather and they easily handle anything the weather there throws at them. Really great sea-boats!! Comfortable and fast for their length and displacement.

See attached (above) photo of mine taken in NZ a number of years ago.

Yours faithfully,

Alan Mountford..

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Blue Gum is a work in progress. Here is an interesting photo of BlueGum's changed cabin and deck followed by his report on the project.

                                                                       July 24, 2007

Hi Ron,

Thank you for your e-mail.  I had a look at the web-site you sent me. Yes - those photos are of the S&S 24 Falcon - same as mine.

You will note from the photo of the boat in the water (green hull S&S Falcon 24 below - Webmaster note: Later on we found out this boat is Maneri) how the cabin front slopes down forward of the mast. Looks quite racy - but it takes out a lot of the headroom in the forward cabin. Attached (above) is a photo of the front of mine as it is now as a result of the upgrade I am doing. Much more practical!!

 The cockpit design meant water lay on the seats and sole if the boat was not trimmed dead level as they were built flat both ways. I have rebuilt it so that the water drains off the seats through tubes into the cockpit well, and the well now drains out through two 2 inch tubes through to the transom from an aft sloping sole.

 I replaced the aluminium toe-rail with a wooden one and glassed the underside of the hull / deck joint which only had mastic in the joint and held together with the bolts holding the toe rail on previously - not a very good practice in my book.

 I found the article about the Auckland Fibreglass Boat and Caravan Show interesting (see below). Must have been quite sometime before I became an owner as I don't remember it.

.

The list of boats on the NZ Yachting Assoc register are only some of the boats that were built. There was is no requirement to register with them as an owner, and consequently a lot never did. Even though I became a member, I never really got involved with the S&S 24 owner's assoc since the owner's assoc of my previous boat were very active and a great crowd to socialise with. The S&S 24 assoc folded due to lack of member interest shortly after I purchased my S&S. Hence my lack of knowledge of the history of the S&S 24 class unfortunately.

 
 I will be taking a trip to Auckland, NZ mid August for a week. While I am there I will see what I can dig up for you. I still have a number of good friends there involved in the yachting scene and I think the builder is still in business - but trading under a different name, which I cannot recall.

Kind regards,
Alan

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Alan checked in on Sepember 28, 2008 with the following progress report and picture of Blue Gum. Judging from the redesign and refit projects he has going with Blue Gum, it looks like Alan is a very short step away from going into the professional design and custom boat building business.

Hello Ron,
It is quite a while since I last visited your web-site. I think you have done a great job of it with lots of very interesting information and have really enjoyed going through it again

I have been spending most of my spare time working on my boat. Thought I'd send a pic of the modifications done to the aft end of my boat to date. The internal corners have now been filleted and the plywood is now glassed over but not painted yet. The cockpit sole has a teak overlay and will also do a similar overlay on the cockpit seats and coaming tops.

Regards,
Alan

Pretty impressive work - like those cockpit seat drains