Ariadne (now Eban Shay's boat) has an interesting history and former owner, Chris Peregrine shared some of it with us. The trail led to an OJ Young at Southern YC in New Orleans in the early 1960s. On April 27, 2008 with the help of Kett Cummins, Jr at Southern YC we tracked down OJ in Clear Water, Texas. Your webmaster spoke with OJ and we expect to get more information and pictures of Elva soon.

OJ reports that Elva was built in LaPorte, Texas in 1958/59 by a group of 3 guys - Bob Marsh, John Wells and Chip Morse. John and Chip have passed away but your webmaster was able to speak to Bob Marsh.

Elva was badly damaged when Hurricane Carla hit the Houston area on September 11, 1961 - a 4 ft hole below the waterline among other damage. OJ bought her and fixed her up - the story of this repair was reported in a Yachting Magazine article which we are tracking down.

The original hull color was white but was changed to black by OJ. According to Bob Marsh she was the first of 10 Shaw 24's he and his partners built. OJ recalls that Elva had a 40hp Brennan gas engine that weighed only 60? lbs. Bob reports they built the Shaw 24s with fiberglass hulls in a vacant building, otherwise the boats were all wood, with the last 2 having glass laminated to the plywood decks. Bob said that John Wells, who was a marine architect, had obtained the hull mold, where he did not know.They never had a fiberglass deck mold. These 10 boats are unusual in that they are the only known Shaw 24s that had fiberglass hulls.

OJ raced Elva successfully winning the MORC championship in 1962.

To be continued...