When Olin Speaks

By Laurie Fullerton

Only a place as certifiably insane as Sailing Anarchy would think to follow up the above article with a piece on Olin Stephens. Hey, something for the whole family!
Proving that she never sleeps, our gal Laurie filed this piece for us.

Auckland, NZ - In looking over the two International America's Cup Class boats from his vantage point on the press boat on the Hauraki Gulf, the venerable yacht designer and deacon of the America's Cup, Olin Stephens said today that the America's Cup is, "always the same and always different."

Stephens, who has just published a book called Lines: A Half-Century of Yacht Designs by Sparkman & Stephens, 1930-80 today compared Ernesto Bertarelli, the syndicate head of the Swiss Alinghi Challenge to Mike Vanderbilt who "shows the very valuable and organized leadership needed to win a campaign."

Vanderbilt financed and ran the successful campaign in 1937 when the J-boat Ranger won the America's Cup for the New York Yacht Club. Stephens, and his mentor Starling Burgess of Marblehead, Mass. designed Ranger. Olin, and his brother Rod, were young men and key members of the afterguard aboard Ranger on a boat helmed by the popular and well-liked Vanderbilt. Bertarelli may not be driving SUI-64, but he is in the back of the boat grinding winches, navigating and, most recently, smiling a lot.

Olin Stephen beloved J-boat design Ranger was dismantled during WWII where her iron keel was used for the war effort. During the fifty years Olin and his brother, Rod Stephens, ran Sparkman and Stephens, boats designed by the firm dominated international yacht racing including wins in the Bermuda Race, the Fastnet Race and eight victories in the America's Cup.

For a man with such a long history of being a part of the America's Cup, Stephens did note that the second race of the 31st America's Cup, which Team New Zealand lost by 7 seconds, was "one of the best races I have ever seen in the whole history of the Cup."

And, that is a lot of races.

On the difference between the two boats, Stephens noted that although he didn't know the dimension of the two IACC boats, "broadly speaking the hulls are very similar and they have managed to design two boats with minimal drag passing through it."

"To me, it looks like NZL-82 has more marginal plane than SUI-64," Stephens said. "And, she looks faster on the tack. I thought that NZL-82 would have a speed advantage over SUI-64 but they seem very equal."