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1967 Block Island Race Week
Ralph's Jack Rabbit was a consistent winner in MORC regattas on the east coast, and it is likely she is one of the first 10 Dolphins built. He told me a very interesting story about buying her. He bought Jack Rabbit new directly from O'Day - it was their NY show boat in 1961. The salesman was a Dick Sheenan (sp?). This boat had 2 large windows cut into the starboard side of the hull so interested show go'ers could look into the boat without getting aboard. This 'feature' of Jack Rabbit needed to be removed so it could be sold after the show. Ralph negotiated a discounted price and had the boat shipped to Port Washington.
The second part of this story - Ralph had planned to do the fiberglass work himself but Lunn Laminates, a fiberglass laminating company located in the same town that Ralph lived, contacted him and offered to do the work at no cost to him. They told him that they were going to be building these boats under a contract from O'Day and it would save their people a lot of time to have his boat to look over and measure. Ralph said they did a great job of filling the holes and fairing and finishing the hull. They also told him that they were going to build the boats because O'Day could not make any money building it themselves!
Webmaster note: We are slowing getting the Marscot/O'Day/Lunn story. Stay tuned...
Ralph sold his boat in 1967 and believes it was shipped out to the midwest somewhere. We don't know Jack Rabbit's hull number - it seems it would have been one of the last boats by O'Day in 1960. Ralph told us that he selected # 33 for his sail number because he liked the number, not because it was the hull number. He sent in the above picture.
Ralph told of a boat named Akela owned by Dave Knickerbocker that he raced against in the early 1960's. It was an O'Day built boat hull on which Dave built a wood deck and cabin. Bingo!! We know this boat. She is now in California and has quite a story. Dick Galland who owned Kestrel, which has a wood deck and cabin, told us that he bought his boat in 1972 and her name then was Akela. This boat is now 'Petaluma" and owned by Tim Blair. Click on Akela to go to her, Kestral to go to her, and " Petaluma" to go to her.
In June, 1967 he wrote an article for One Design & Offshore Yachtsman. You can go to it by clicking here.
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