September 29, 2009 Paul Trockel checked in to confirm that he had bought Charisma, a Yankee on the hard for several years in Shelbourne on Lake Champlain in Vermont - bringing his current fleet of Yankee Dolphins up to 4!! He said that Charisma is the 7th Yankee he has owned. This led to a discussion of the other Dolphins and then the light bulb ignited - we had his Kalea in our Roster. There was too much connecting of dots for a Dolphin webmaster to absorb in one phone conversation - Paul has a story to tell about his life with Dolphins, and he promises we will get it soon.

Paul originally checked in October 7, 2007 and reported Kaela is on the hard in Twisp where she awaiting completion of her ''remodeling'. At some point we will get a more detailed report on her. We know a lot about Ka lea from former owner Dick Rosse.

This picture is of Kalea sailing on the Chesapeake. Dick is a retired news correspondent for NBC and Mutual radio networks and wrote some great articles about his Dolphin for the Chesapeake Bay Magazine. Their readers must have come to know Dick's Kalea pretty well by now. Dick has owned her 3 different times which must be a record for same boat ownership! It certainly is a strong indication of the special relationship between this man and his boat. I think most of us can identify with that feeling.

Dick sent us the 3 articles he wrote for the magazine that not only explain that relationship, but gives the reader an good understanding of this special sailing area . One of the reasons I wanted to do this website is get a hold of and share exactly the kind of stories Dick tells. They are linked below - click on them and enjoy.

Falling in Love - Again

Bridges and Little Sailboats

Kalea Twisp

The following is excerpted from Dick's article "Kaela Twisp" and is our first introduction to Paul Trockel and Kalea's new life. An interesting twist to this story about the man from Twisp is that he bought Todd Phillip's trailer to make his cross country voyage. At the time Todd owned Cove Dweller, Yankee #111 in St Michael's MD.

I'd like to say I sold my sailboat to a guy who lives in north-central Washington State because the boat would be so far away that I wouldn't even be tempted to buy her back for the fourth time.

But that's not exactly true.  The new owner of my old boat, Kalea, just happens to live in Twisp, WA, (pop. 915) which is where he saw my Internet ad and insisted on buying her sight unseen and no quibbling on the price.

Seems the guy loves the Sparkman-Stephens Yankee Dolphin line of "pocket cruisers" as much as I do.  He was a student of naval architecture and even once met the legendary Olin Stephens, the Dolphin's renown designer.  He just had to have my boat and he was ready to bring his pickup truck 28-hundred miles east to trailer her back to Twisp 

What's more, he and his wife had fond memories of sailing a Yankee Dolphin off Vancouver Island many years ago.  His unfulfilled dream was to sail with his family in an identical boat up the Inland Passage into Alaska.

Stay tuned!!