Savlli is one of first O'Day/Lunn built boats, and certainly one of the boats that established the Dolphin's outstanding reputation as a small racing auxilliary. As En Charette she was raced successfully in eastern Long Island Sound by Ron Noe of Essex, CT. Ron bought her from Hugo Hilderdorf of Patchogue, LI, NY who Ron believes was her first owner. It was a stripped out boat below and Ron built out the interior to keep weight as low as possible. She had a white hull and a Palmer 8hp inboard.
Ron sold En Charette to Carlton Granberry of Guilford, CT (Sachem's Head YC) who renamed her Savili. She won the Off Soundings Club Charles J. Koch Trophy for best combined Spring and Fall Series results in the highly competitive 40-50 boat Class B-2 for 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1977. Carl sold her to Ed Diekerdorf of Mystic, CT who painted her hull green and raced her as well. In the late 1990's Savili was sold to Gary DeLong who sent the following email to Jim Huxford's Dolphin 24 website dated November 4, 1999
Subject: New Dolphin owner
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 20:23:37 -0500
From: "Judy D."
To: Jim Huxford
Dear Jim
Just learned about the site and couldn't wait to log on. After years of sailing an O'Day Javelin and crewing on other people's bigger boats, two summers ago I bought hull # 200 built by Lunn in 1960. I absolutely love the boat. Her name is Savili, a name I inherited. It’s a Samoan word meaning "fresh breeze." She looks exactly what a sailboat is supposed to look like and sails like a dream. She was raced a lot in Fisher's Island Sound in Connecticut and always did very well in the Block Island race scene.
I keep her in Jonesport, Maine which is way downeast and in the summer she is moored on the Western shore of Great Wass Island. She has a very different cabin layout from some of the pictures of other Dolphins I have seen. I would like to reconfigure and get the Porta-Potti out from under the table! She still has the original engine which is an eight hp Palmer gasoline. It runs like a charm but I am thinking of going with a small diesel but not until I do lots of other stuff. My first priority is some deck leaks which I will tackle next spring.
Please sign me up for any memberships and let me know what I owe or whatever.
Gary DeLong
Bar Harbor, Maine.
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Webmaster Note: January 29, 2008 - we have tracked down Gary and expect an update and pictures of Savili soon.
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On July 8, 2008 Gary got in touch with the following email (edited)
Hi Ron
Savili is going in the water later this week. I have had her little one lunger original 8 hp Palmer inboard rebuilt this winter and finally got it back in and all put back together. I decided not to go the diesel route. Too expensive plus I hated to get rid of the Palmer. But with all the messing around the engine I didn't get some other aesthetics taken care of. I didn't get off the "hard" last summer so I am determined to get her in before the summer is gone. She will be on our mooring on Great Wass Island in the town of Beals. As soon as I get her in I will get some new digital photos and get one sent to you.
I love hearing about other Dolphins so really appreciate you keeping in touch with everyone. In addition to a photo.
Let me know what else you need to know.
Gary
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July 22, 2008
Gary sent in the pictures at the top of the page and the following picture of Savili's nameplate.
When O'Day contracted with Lunn to build 25 boats in late 1960 they instructed Lunn to assign hull numbers starting with 200. If this is correct then Savili is their first boat. US Yachts (click here to go to US Yachts) was O'Day's marketing and sales agent for the Dolphin - it is curious that Lunn's name appears on the nameplate, not O'Day's. For more on nameplates and builder's numbers, click here.
