What a life

Tim Jeffery celebrates just a fraction of the life and times of Olin Stephens

The man who dominated yacht design in the last century is a centurion himself. Happy 100th birthday, Olin J Stephens II.

The enduring brilliance of the man is such that the first major biography about him and his brother Rod was written a full 30 years ago by Francis S Kinney, one- time employee of Sparkman & Stephens. Since then Olin has published two of his own: a 1999 autobiography with its self-effacing title All This and Sailing Too and a 2002 compendium of his favourite designs, Lines.

The latter’s sub-title is ‘A Half Century of Yacht Designs’ which is as neat a summary as is possible. Fifty years in the vanguard of designing sailing yachts. It is quite remarkable.

To read the remainder of this and many other articles, please purchase your copy of the May 2008 edition of Seahorse International Sailing available at selected newsstands or by calling: + 44 (0) 1590 671899 or by email at: subscriptions@seahorse.co.uk

Individual copies as well as subscriptions can both be purchased online at: www.seahorsemagazine.com

Below: A last render of Steve Killing’s design for the C-Class foiler cat Off Yer Rocker before starting construction. The coloured bands on the foils are put there to help with off-the-boat observation of ride height