Classic Boat Club | S&S: 8 cults under the sign of Sparkman & Stephens

1931, the Transatlantic Race is won by Dorade. It was project #7 by the newly formed firm Sparkman & Stephens, founded in 1929 by Drake Sparkman -renowned shipping broker- and Olin Stephens -young and promising ship designer. An outstanding victory and, for the firm, the springboard to the Olympus of sailing… From here the legend would be born and, with it, the iconic acronym: S&S… and it is from this that we start today, looking at the cults that, of this precisely, make themselves representatives in the Official Register of the Classic Boat Club…

Classic Boat Club | S&S: 8 cults under the sign of Sparkman & Stephens

To get to us, however, to Classic Boats, the leap forward is a long one and, from the Atlantic, will take us to the 1960s in the Bel Paese, to the years of the first fiberglass series and the RORC years. From there, via the IOR and the one-offs, we will thus return north, not to America, but up the English Channel and the Netherlands, reaching Finland…to return, eventually, here in the Bel paese. From Benello to Nautor, Carlini to Royal Huisman, here’s to you. eight exceptional S&S hulls, iconic studio designs and excellent milestones in a now nearly 100-year history…

S&S in the Classic Boat Club: the 1960s

Taking us this side of the Atlantic we find. Benello who, in the mid-1960s, commissioned an exceptional project, a future milestone in Italian and Mediterranean shipbuilding: the Gaia.
Competitive and rugged cabin cruiser designed for offshore racing and cruising, thus takes shape the Sparkman & Stephens design #1710, giving birth to a series of extremely innovative fiberglass sloops, destined to be produced in more than 50 units, forwarding abundantly into the following decade as well. Highly appreciated and qualitatively excellent, the Gaia succeeded in their purpose, resulting in such outstanding specimens as Nelly, launched in ’67 and a multiple winner between Mediterranean and Ocean for the entire period 1967-1975.

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After the brilliant Gaia project, another S&S project took shape in Italy in 1968, this time at the Carlini Shipyards of Rimini, then a focal point for the study. Commissioned by Charles Holland -who moved to Italy after World War II (ex British Special Operations Executive e Devil’s Brigade Canadian operational in Italy)-this is project number #1922, an excellent one-tonner RORC inspired by previous S&S successes Roundabout e Clarinet. It will be, of course, Ojalà -today Golondrina, the two-time Mediterranean One Ton Champion (1970, 1971), as well as first runner-up at the 1971 Giraglia… from here, as times changed, Golondrina would later change hands, rediscovering the buoys only in the 1990s, when she would win some 20 major podiums in just over a decade.

The same year as Ojalà brings to Italy another S&S design destined for grand series and success. It will be the design #1930 Of the study, the Freya. Behind the project, again, a forward-looking request for Benello, which identifies this sloop as an offshore first class also suitable for cruising. Elegant, fast and of quality, Benello thus signs a second milestone, giving life to a hull that is nothing short of exemplary. Exceptional, in this sense, is the specimen in our Official Register, Taotaj, launched, however, in ’76.

S&S in the Classic Boat Club: the 1970s (1)

With the 1970s, ship design changed and, with it, new formulas took shape, scattering cards and games on a par with what happened in ’65 with Carter’s Rabbit. It will be Peterson, however, in ’73, who will now change the game. In this landscape, however, new schools and change already feel in the air, and Holland, in order to remain competitive, commissions S&S to come up with a new design. It will be the design #2143, conceived in 1972 and launched in that fateful 1973: Ojalá II. Made of aluminum-now at Royal Huisman in the Netherlands-like its predecessor, the Ojalá II will be an elegant One Tonner, but at that fateful One Ton Cup, little will he be able to do against the two great revelations of Porto Cervo: Ydra, helmed by Admiral Straulino, and Ganbare, Peterson’s innovative hull, recently released from the same S&S studio…

Set against the purely competitive spirit demanded by Holland’s commission, the mid-1970s saw another excellent commission, destined to reverberate in the racing world far beyond what the first glance might suggest. It is the S&S project # 2201, on a Finnish commission: it is the Swan 47 -enters the field Nautor Swan, of which S&S is already a signatory on a dozen models. With the Swan 47 -of which Grampus two is witness to Registry- S&S and Nautor sign a masterpiece, a hull not only elegant and excellent for cruising, but incredible in racing as well, so much so that it supplanted another S&-signed commission-the NYYC 50-and became the basis for the NYYC 48, basically, a super-tired Swan 47. And this will not be the only 47′ drift….

Exactly-from today’s shores of the UK, across the English Channel-another racing and Italian-born S&S is appearing at the Classic Boat Club: it is the project #2222 C2 of the study, for some choices, though smaller, inspired precisely by the 47′. Intended by Torquato Gennari, launched in 1976, it is. Tramp of Airlie, one of three hulls designed as contenders for the Italian team of theAdmiral’s Cup ’77. Made of aluminum from theNaval Mechanical Workshop of Pesaro, excellent in line and conception, will, however, be part of an ill-fated adventure, remaining, together with the sisters –Prospect of Whitby IV e Dorothea- excluded from selection.

S&S in the Classic Boat Club: the 1970s (2)

Back in Italy, another shipyard -already in the 1960s, as was Benello- had confronted the S&S studio, resulting in undisputed masterpieces: Alpa, capable of churning out with excellences such as the 12.70… So it was on the wave of these successes that, in 76, alpa returned to the limelight by commissioning Olin Stephens to design #2242: it will be theAlpa A34, an excellent fast cruising hull, the last model produced by the Offanengo shipyard and represented, in an excellent way, by Display, launched in ’78. Closed the construction site, the goodness of the project will survive in the Z34, on the same molds, now acquired by Zuanelli.

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To this, what S&S project #2297, is flanked instead by a giant, excellence of both the offshore cruising front and the offshore racing world: Matchless –Former Battlecry, excellent Swan 57, veteran of the legendary Fastnet 1979. Born at Nautor Swan, the 57 signed S&S is not only an excellent hull, however, but represents, effectively, the last Swan to be completely designed by Sparkman & Stephens, signatories of every Swan since the company’s inception in 1966. Last to launch (1978), she closes (as of now) the S&S list an additional One Tonner, Sea Otter, Sparkman & Stephens project no. #2062 FG3 and built at the shipyards A. Le Comte in the Netherlands.

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