Olin Stephens Dies at 100

Olin J. Stephens, (b. April 13, 1908)
the undisputed titan of 20th century yacht design, passed away Sept. 13th. His world-renown
design firm of Sparkman & Stephens (S&S) designed over 2,000 boats from
the 1930s until his retirement in 1978. He, along with his younger brother Roderick,
was responsible for many design innovations in sailboats, most notably the Dorade
deck ventilators and the skeg-mounted rudder which performed so successfully on
the America's Cup defender Intrepid. He designed 8 of the 9 defending America's
Cup boats from 1930 to 1980. We were privileged to know and work with both Olin
and Rod during the go-go years of ocean racing in the early 1970s. Olin made the
boats go fast and Rod made them strong, and we doubt he would abide by the lightweight
ocean racers being built today. Olin held the New York Yacht Club membership #1,
at 78 years the club's longest serving member.

Olin Stephens.

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The following article has been provided by the New York Yacht Club and the author
John Rousmaniere:



“I was lucky: I had a goal. As far back as I can remember I wanted to design fast
boats.” The first two sentences of Olin Stephens’s autobiography, "All This and
Sailing, Too," summarize a lifetime’s vocation on the part of the most successful
and influential designer of the 20th century. He was raised near New York City and,
as a boy, was introduced to boats on family vacations at Cape Cod. Along with his
father, Roderick, and younger brother, Roderick Jr. (called Rod), he learned to
sail in a series of family-owned boats. Fascinated by sailing and its technology,
the boys absorbed all they could from yachting magazines and their own experience
and were encouraged and supported by their father.

Olin (center) and Rod (l.) with their father (back row with pipe) won both the 1931 Transatlantic Race and the Fastnet Race in Olin’s 52 Dorade.

Stephens entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1926, only to be forced
to drop out during his freshman year due to illness. Throughout his life, although
he was a pioneer in scientific yacht design, he would say that he regretted his
lack of training in mathematics and engineering. Yet Stephens had aptitudes that
suited his calling. “I started my career with the tools of observation and intuition
to which quantitative analysis has been gradually added,” he wrote in his autobiography.
“Whenever possible I studied lines and tried to see the way shape was coupled to
performance.”

The Stephens family received a New York City ticker tape parade for winning the Transatlantic Race in 1931, with Olin front and center.

By 1926 he was sailing regularly at Larchmont Yacht Club in Six Meters, a restricted-design
keel boat of about 34 feet LOA and the hot racing class of the day with top-flight
sailor-designers like Clinton Crane and Sherman Hoyt. By 1928 he was working at
a drafting table at home and, with the help of Norman L. Skene’s manual "The Elements
of Yacht Design," was teaching himself how to draw plans.

Starling Burgess (seated), Olin, Rod, and Drake Sparkman about 1937. Burgess was the reigning king of yacht design and was in the process of handing the baton to Olin at the time of this photo. Sparkman was the business partner of the Stephens brothers all of their lives.

Stephens’s on-the-water observations of Six Meters confirmed the value of that rule
of thumb. His first published design, a Six, appeared in the January 1928 Yachting
with these comments by the young designer: “In any design the most important factors
of speed seem to be long sailing lines and large sail area, with moderate displacement
and small wetted surface. Then comes beauty, by which is meant clean, fair, pleasing
lines. Though per se beauty is not a factor of speed, the easiest boats to look
at seem the easiest to drive.”

Olin (l.) and younger brother, Rod, who died some years ago. They made a great team all of their lives with Olin designing the boats and Rod engineering them.

All this time Stephens was producing successful racing boats, including the winners
of a total of eight of the nine America’s Cup matches between 1937 and 1980. Other
than Ranger, the most remarkable of these boats was Intrepid, the defender in 1967
and, after alterations by Britton Chance Jr., again in 1970. She had a rudder separate
from her keel to reduce wetted surface and improve steering. The separate rudder
was not new, but Stephens made it work on a number of increasingly large ocean racers
(most notably Thomas Watson’s Palawan) in the mid-60's before successfully using
it on Intrepid.



While designing America’s Cup defenders and ocean racers, Stephens also produced
a number of powerboats, motorsailers and cruising boats. Stephens also was active
in the design of day-racing boats, the best known of which is the Lightning, a 19
foot three-person centerboarder designed in 1938 and raced worldwide. Other successful
day boats included the 13.5 foot Blue Jay (a small version of the Lightning), the
11.5 foot Interclub Dinghy and the 30-foot Shields keel boat.



After Drake Sparkman’s death in 1964, Olin Stephens shouldered the firm’s administrative
burden. His chief assistants included his brother Rod, who supervised much of the
rigging design and construction, and Gil Wyland. Olin often raced in boats he designed
and was in regular attendance at Newport during America’s Cup summers. Beginning
in the 1930's, Stephens nurtured a creative, independent life ashore. He studied
art and painted, played the piano and read and traveled widely. He and his wife,
Susie, lived in a New York suburb where they raised two sons. On his retirement
in 1978 (after designing or supervising the design of more than 2,000 boats or classes),
the Stephenses moved to northern New England. Stephens continued his varied life
into his nineties. At nearby Dartmouth College he took courses in mathematics and
helped teach a course on sailing for engineers. He developed his computer skills,
worked with a firm on software for studying aerodynamics, advised America’s Cup
syndicates and traveled often and far to technical conferences and meetings of international
rating rules committees. When Dorade was returned to her original form by a dedicated
new owner in Italy in 1998, Stephens happily flew over and joined her crew as she
won two out of three races.


At the age of 90, Olin Stephens completed an insightful autobiography whose title
— "All This and Sailing, Too" — neatly summarized his view of life. On the last
page he wrote: “In all phases of my work I was conscious of the need for balance,
and I did my best to find balance in both the long and the short view. Broadly I
think I can say that I applied the principles of balance in design, in business
and in the pleasures I enjoyed.”



God bless you Olin.