October 10, 2016. Your webmaster spoke with Capt Jim's Boatyard and Marine Salvage in Portland, Maine this morning. AURORA is no longer with us. He has some Dolphin 24 parts in his inventory if anyone is interested. Click on the link to go there.

RIP AURORA

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February 4, 2016. We got the following email from Graham (minor edits)

Hi Ron

Clare gave me your email to get in touch with you about the Aurora. Back in October I had a week to really dig into her core and, well, lets just say this project needs some professional touches. To sum up what she'll need : the entire deck will have to be lifted up off the hull and re-cored, fiberglass and gelcoat refinished; the interior will have to be redone too.

She is currently still shrink-wrapped on Presumpscot Street in Portand. The owner of the boat yard, Captain Jim, has offered to take her off my hands for a near even trade for a Tanzier 75 he got through salvage that needs very little and is sea worthy. I thought I'd approach you first to see if you could put the word out to the Dolphin community or know of anyone who would be interested in taking Aurora. I'd hate to see her cut up and parted out. I'd be very generous in letting her go; the outboard engine still works and has low hours. The cushions and Dodgers are in good condition.

Feel free to post this on the website.

Graham

Contact Graham at: graham.hults87@gmail.com

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October 24, 2015 Your webmaster had a 'fall fix' trip to Portland, Maine planned, and as webmasters are always on duty, I contacted Clare to get the latest on Aurora. Nothing much except Clare has handed off her share in Aurora to Graham Hults and she has bought a bigger boat for herself. I found out Aurora was still at the same boatyard, and snuck out to check her out. She's there, waiting....

Back on October 31, 2014. Clare Gannon checked in as the new co-owner of AURORA, a Tripp built Dolphin 24, Hull #76. Her email is below along with some pictures. To check out AURORA's past life click here.

Hi Ron,

I just happened to check back in on your website, where I had previously read up on Aurora's history, and noticed you had updated her status! We are proud to have her in storage and slowly but surely figuring out where to get started with her restoration. It's going to be in stages but we're hoping to have her in the water next summer for at least some day sailing. We're new to boat restoration so it's going to be a steep learning curve!

You can track her progress at https://www.HeadOverKeel.com and at https://www.facebook.com/headoverkeel.

Thanks for being a great resource for Dolphin lovers!

Clare

Clare's website has lots of pictures and text and is worth the visit. For the Dolphin24.org record, and with Clare's permission, here are a few pictures from her website plus excerpts of her comments.

Adopting AURORA

"Oh and did I mention she needs a total overhaul?! Her gelcoat has some sanded spots where someone started to give her some love, but never finished. She needs all new bottom paint and a good external scrubbing.."

"She has standing water still in the bilge, black mold for days, peeling paint that falls in your mouth, and rotted balsa core EVERYWHERE. And someone needs to evict the mice, spiders, and hornets she is sheltering."

"But she was certainly hiding her biggest secret. We decided to get an idea of what we were dealing with when it came to the core. We knew that the deck flexed and bounced when we stood on the foredeck. So we decided to rip into it from underneath and get some idea of what we were in for. The core is soggy. Like a sponge. You can wring it out. Oh. Dear. So we ripped into it a little more...."

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