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 at left - (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

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September 30, 2008 - David Le Mestre, who is from Brittany, France, but currently lives in Morocco, took this picture of Natine, a sister of Alan's Blue Gum. Natine was sailed from New Zealand to Brittany, France (a story we must get!!), and is for sale there. David wanted more information on Falcon 24s to help with obtaining the necessary European certifications should he decide to buy her. In his search he found our website. In response to our request Alan has helped with this effort and provided info on accommodations, sailing characteristics and construction that can David can use. His email is below.

Hi Ron,

When I had my S&S 24 in New Zealand and was sailing with my former wife and our children we had 6 people on board.sometimes for weekends and holidays. The children at that time were 10 and 12 yrs old. My boat had a double V berth forward, 2 single quarter berths, a settee berth and a pilot berth. It was rather crowded with 6 on board I must admit - but as the kids were young we managed OK. Personally I wouldn't want more than 3 adults if away overnight.on a boat that size. As far as I can remember most S&S 24's in NZ only ever raced with 2 or 3 people on board generally, but most had 5 bunks. With family on board we only sailed in relatively sheltered waters although we quite often sailed in winds of 25 to 30 knots.

It is not the height of a wave that is a problem - it is the steepness of it. The S&S will handle some pretty rough water but I wouldn't like to try and handle a 2 meter breaking wave on a bar for example. I came out of the Bay of Islands on the East Coast of New Zealand (single-handed) one day and headed south down the coast. The day before had been blowing about 30 knots from the South East and there was a 3 to 4 metre SE swell still running but the wind had dropped to about 6 - 10 knots,.still from the SE to E direction. Close hauled on Starboard tack I sailed out past the E end of Cape Brett before tacking over and heading south. The big swells were stuffing the wind direction around as each swell passed. Blue Gum rode through the seas easily.

Another day, (again single handed), I left Whangarei and headed north up the coast. There was a 25 knot easterly blowing and a good 2 m sea running.(unlimited fetch) I beat out around Bream Head towing two fishing lines and in the process of tacking the lines became tangled together. It is a several mile dead beat to windward from the mouth of the river out to Bream Head and Blue Gum footed it through the seas at hull speed without any fuss. Once around the Head I eased sheets as I headed north, put the autopilot on and made an effort to untangle the fishing lines. I was about a mile off the coast and the seas here were normal ocean waves. Blue Gum rode very comfortably on a beam reach and I had no difficulty working untangling the fishing lines.

I don't know if any of this information will help David? The S&S 24 is a very seaworthy design but also the Falcon model does have some design faults with the deck and hatches which is why I am doing the modifications to mine.(see my comments in e-mails I have sent) The hulls and decks are strongly built - although some of the fibreglassing on mine is a bit rough in places. The other thing I didn't like is that the hull/deck joint is only bolted together on a mastic seal with the bolts that hold the aluminium toe-rail on.  It seems strong enough - but there is a potential for leaks. That is why I glassed the whole of the underside of the joint and fitted a solid wood belting and toe-rail instead. Stronger and no possible leaks there now.

As you too will attest they are a beautiful comfortable boat to sail and they perform very well for their length and displacement. There are a lot of bigger cruising boats won't average more than 5 knots on a passage!!

Regards
Alan

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August 10, 2010. Alan's been thinking about port lights - here's what he has in mind. Pretty cool, I think (minor edits)

 

Hi Ron

How do you think the attached would look as a glass leadlight in the front windows of my boat?

My thoughts were to have the outside portlight made of slightly tinted perspex as would be normal, and then sit this leadlight inside the window frame on the inside.

 

 What are your thoughts?

 Regards

 

Alan