September 3, 2012. The following is from Fressenden S. Blanchard's, "The Sailboat Classes of North America" published in 1963. Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, New York. pp. 252-253. This article was supplied by Carl Harrington (Yankee Girl Esther, Yankee #89 - click here to go to her page) in a 1999 email he sent to former Dolphin webmaster Jim Huxford, discovered in an Internet archives search.

	March 2, 2014. Carl followed up with these two pictures from the book - the cover at left, and above, the Dolphin 24 in the book. We'll have to find out whose boat this was.

DOLPHIN

The 24-foot sloop Dolphin was designed in 1959 by Sparkman and Stephens to meet the requirements of George D. O'Day and to qualify under the rules of the Midget Ocean Racing Club. She is built of fiberglass at the Marscot Plastics Division of the O'Day Corporation (9 Newbury St., Boston, Mass.). The aim was to produce a low-cost cruising and racing auxiliary with as much room as possible for the size, a fast boat which would be seaworthy and trailable. The boats are distributed by U. S. Yachts, Inc. (Village Square, Westport, Conn.), who explain the situation, in part, as follows:

"With an eye on the excellent performance of Bill Scranton's 24-foot "Trina" in MORC competition George O'Day wanted to produce a fiber-glass boat which would perform as well as or better than the famous yawl. The Sparkman & Stephens design has lived up to the O'Day requirements and has won races under the CCA, LMYRA and MORC rules. Wiki McNeil of Annapolis, Ralph Heinzerling of Port Washington, Long Island, a New London owner, and Peter Grimm of Chicago have all been big winners.

"Fifty boats have been delivered and ten are now being built to order for customers in the United States. Fifty per cent of the Dolphin owners use them solely as weekend cruisers, while the other 50 per cent are raced and cruised. We anticipate forty new owners in 1962. Three boats have been built from kits and all are sailed from Southport, Connecticut. R. Clark DuBoise of Fairfield, Connecticut, is in the process of forming a class association with a regular racing schedule."

Principal sailing areas are on the East Coast of the United States and the Great Lakes. The accommodations include a double berth forward and two quarterberths in the main cabin, a galley, and a head (where "privacy is obtained with curtains"). Cockpit is self-bailing. Price is $7500 for new boats; used are about $1000 less.

VITAL STATISTICS:

L.O.A. 24'; waterline 19'; beam 7'S"; draft without centerboard 2'10") with C.B. 5'2"; sail area 297 sq. ft.; weight 4500 lbs.; power, a Palmer Huskie inboard engine.

Courtesy U.S. Yachts, Inc

One of the interesting elements of this excerpt is the quotation from US Yachts regarding the number of boats. We can't tell exactly when that statement was made but given the publication date of the book sometime in late 1962, early 1963. For more on the number of Dolphins built click here.

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