Scott owns Dorado with his brother and actually checked in last July, but this page did not get updated. Mom (Liz Davies) played a role in Dorado's story and it follows:
December 11, 2007
PREPARING TO COME ABOARD, SIR!
I am extremely involved in the acquisition of DORADO, the Yankee
Dolphin in Marina Del Rey, #86. You see, I am the Mom of these two men Scott and Jay Davies...who now own the boat.
I have some stories I'd love to share. Would it be possible to share
them with you? Or would you kindly give me the email address of the person I would share my story with? Dorado has such a wonderful story, and I'd love to share it for the Holidays.
Very Best to all Dolphin owners,
Liz Davies
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Dorado's story gets fleshed out in the following email from Liz Davies received December 29, 2007.
DORADO GROWS UP!
Dorado was built in the mid-sixties in Costa Mesa by Yankee Yachts. Called a Yankee dolphin and molded with a little blue dolphin at the top hull line near her bow, this little boat design was fashioned after classic, traditional New England boats that raced on Long Island Sound in the 1930’s.
She is made out of fiberglass & polyester resin, and has a monolithic hull with a centerboard trunk, topsides and house molded together and joined at the top of the hull by a teak toe rail. She was made of top quality construction by the boat builder whose passion for her design integrity was a beacon of light on the darkest sea, even when in the end the Yankee Dolphin couldn’t compete with the lighter, less well built fiberglass hulls that came after her.
Sold to a man in San Francisco, Dorado beat to many brisk winds around the Golden Gate before being sold again, sight unseen, to a friend in Seattle. When she came off the truck in Seattle her new owner’s heart flipped over. “I looked at her,” the man said, “and when she came off the truck at Leschi Marina I realized she was the same boat design of a little boat I’d fallen in love with when I passed her in Southport Harbor, Connecticut.” His name is Jim Clyne, and here’s where Merritt, Scott and Jay come into Dorado’s story.
Jim was living in Connecticut after Stanford University when he crewed on Atlantic sailing teams out of Southport Harbor. (For those of you that don't know about Atlantics your webmaster - whose Marionette, formerly Teal was first launched at Southport - cannot resist this opportunity to send you off on a still another tangent - click here to find out why) One winter he spotted a beautiful little sailboat still in the water wrapped with an air hose all around her hull to prevent ice from forming on her hull. He fell in love with her lines, the look of her, and her overall beauty. She was a Sparkman & Stephens design, 24 feet long with a centerboard trunk for getting in and out of the shallow rocky inlets and harbors of the New England coast. He swore when he first saw her that he’d have a boat like her some day. And then, she came off the truck.
Her original name was GINGER, and as soon as she arrived in Seattle she was re-named DORADO in memory of a WW11, 90 foot air sea rescue vessel owned by Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica; the boat that gave him his first love of sailing during his childhood growing up in Malibu.
Jim partnered with Doyl in the ownership of Dorado. She was tied off in slip # 4 at the Seattle Yacht Club for 25 years, where both families enjoyed sailing her around the San Juan Islands in the summer. She was chartered out, had crew changes in Anacortes and glided over the deep green waters of the San Juans until she became less important on her owner’s TO DO lists.
And then, Jim’s partner Doyl walked into my office!
He was a partner in the building I was leasing in La Quinta, and wanted to introduce himself to me before leaving the Desert for his family’s summer months in Seattle. Six degrees of separation later, I realized why he’d come to say hello. In the magic of strange encounters I learned of a little boat in slip #4 at Seattle Yacht Club with sweet lines and existing in stage-4 neglect.
Our journeys form perfect circles when all the dots connect us to one another. Merritt, Scott, and Jay were raised throughout their middle and high school years, in Connecticut. Scott and Jay both sailed in Southport Harbor at the Pequot Yacht Club, and armed with their Launch Operator’s Licenses during their college years they each skippered the Noroton Yacht Club ship-to-shore Launch in the summer months. The craggy rocked inlets of Noroton, Scott’s and Ziegler Coves were their summer “hangs” and boating life of New England was their world. As I listened to Doyl talk about a neglected little boat in Seattle Yacht Club where my mother and father were now two of the oldest living members, my heart pounded like a Tom-Tom. He wanted to find her a nice home, one where she’d be fixed up and enjoyed.
Hmmmm! And hmmmmm.~!
And it was done! Three months later, without telling Merritt, Scott and Jay (who for sure would have wanted me committed for a lobotomy) I shipped Dorado to Wilmington, California and phoned them from my office in La Quinta. “Meet me in Wilmington,” I implored. “Ma!” they barked back, “What have you done now?”
Two good sons and a good daughter should know how to fix up and care for a boat, I rationalized! Each good man/woman needs his/her memories behind the tiller of a small boat as she heads out to blue water at sunset. They need to have, as much as I have had in my young airline stewardess years, the feeling of bathed-in-sunlight joy on a westward helm with wind at their backs, when headed to Catalina’s 4th of July Cove on a warm July day. When they first laid eyes upon Dorado, I wiped away tears in order to see the looks on their faces. After five silent minutes Scott spoke first, “Wow, sweet lines!” he said. Then, we all hugged a few moments more, before they climbed aboard. They’ll never know how much their first climb aboard moment meant to me.
From her first Wilmington sanding, to the days of replaced rigging and backing plates, to the varnishing and painting days, to shopping at Minnie’s looking for new sails, to her re-launch into Long Beach Harbor, memories abound for her new owners.
And so, Dorado has grown up! To Jim & Sandy, Doyl & Cathy, from Merritt, Scott & Adrian and Jay, (not to mention me, author of this little piece) current skippers and tenders for this little Sparkman & Stephens 24-foot boat out of Marina Del Rey, we thank you for passing Dorado along to us on her great little journey. She is a sweet boat, one that thrives on warm winds and following seas!
Respectfully Submitted by,
Liz Davies “The Ma”
December 29, 2007
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Our investigative reporter in LA, Erik Evens, sent in the above and following photos.
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