Plastic Classic Forum

New member here, although I've visited several times over the last year. I'm the extremely proud owner of Yankee Dolphin 24 #118.

For those not familiar, the Dolphin 24 is Sparkman & Stephens design #1497, which came off the boards in 1959. She's a keel-centerboard MORC racer, based on a half-scale study of the great Finesterre done by Bill Shaw while he was a designer at S&S. My Dolphin, "Robin Lee" was built by Yankee in 1969, so she just celebrated her 40th birthday.



My boat was the poster child for Yankee in their 1969 brochure:



Here's a few photos of Robin Lee when I hauled her for bottom work last year:







And a few at home in her slip:







She's my baba. Olin designed sweet looking and very sweet sailing boats, and the Dolphin is no exception. She's a joy to sail, and sneaky fast, particularly for her vintage. I'm smitten, as you can probably tell.

I've noticed a lot of fans of the Sailmaster 22 here on this board. The Dolphin is the clear predecessor of the Sailmaster... the underwater profiles are quite similar, and if you compare all the numbers, the Sailmaster is very much a scaled-down Dolphin. For a scaled-up Dolphin, look no further than the Tartan 27.

Good to be here on the Classic Plastic board. Nice to see so many good folk who dig these old boats!
Best-
Erik

Very nice! Reminds me a lot of the Bristol 24 (Corsair), but with a shallower draft.

Congrats!

Very nice! And Welcome :)

I've always liked the Dolphin. You sure can see the resemblance to the Tartan 27. Very pretty.

Rachel

And as a Sailmaster owner - the family resemblance is very strong.

Be interested in seeing some interior shots when you get a chance.

Welcome!

Welcome! I looked at the Dolphin 24 extensively before buying my slightly larger Yankee-built 30. Gorgeous boats, with a great reputation as sailors. Robin Lee is a beaut among beauties, too - very nice!

I'm sure you know about it - but in case others don't - there is a great site about the Dolphin making it easier to get acquainted: http://www.dolphin24.org/. You need to (or I did, anyway) explore around a bit to realize the depth of the site - there is a lot of material there! And lots of information to get you interested in the Dolphin and then find your own.

Great to have you around, Erik, and don't hesitate to post lots of pictures of your lovely boat!

Cheers,

Chris

Welcome aboard. You sail my favorite smallish boat (I have over a 100 photos of them on my computer). Like Chris, I also looked very seriously at a Dolphin and I echo his comments about the great Dolphin site. I really hope to hitch a ride on one someday but on paper they sure seem liked like a great candidate for an engineless or seldom used electric propulsion sailboat. I really like the fact that Olin graced the Dolphin with a large working sail plan (SA/D about 18).

I hope you will continue posting your experiences.

Cheers, Bill

Froon, Rachel, Tom, Chris, Bill- Thanks for the kind welcome to the board!

Froon- I see you have a Sea Sprite. I nearly bought one before becoming infatuated with the Dolphins. They are so lovely. Maybe my favorite Alberg, because to my eye the sheer is just a bit springier than most. I came very close to owning one.

Chris and Bill - The http://www.dolphin24.org site is wonderful. Ron Breault, who created and runs the board, has given our class a tremendous gift. A fantastic resource...it's arguably the best class website I've ever seen. Well worth a visit just to learn about the history of the boat, which touches many famous and interesting people and places. Ron has been an incredible mentor to our fleet, and a good friend.

Bill- As you may know, the Dolphin has a very well designed outboard well in the stern. I've looked at electric propulsion seriously, and Ron Breault and I have discussed the options at some length. There's a page on the Dolphin24 site that has some notes on the subject.

Yes, the Dolphin is certainly not under canvassed. Sailing in So Cal, where the breeze is on the lighter side, I appreciate the horsepower. I have to remember to reef her early, especially when singlehanding, though. She's incredibly well balanced and well mannered, and often just a very small tweak of the mainsheet or the centerboard is all it takes to settle her down if she starts to act up in a puff.

I'll post a few more pics when I get a chance.

Erik,

Also, cool cover photo of your Dolphin.



That photo of a Dolphin sailing well under just her working headsail is a sweet benefit. I just helped transport my buddies new Cape Dory 25D with a 140% genny and was reminded of just how much work a genny is to tack. I have a two part jib sheet setup on Bolero working jib, which is the same size as yours, and we never use a winch handle.



It rarely takes more than a few seconds to tack while beating to windward. A pretty cool system that I highly recommend if you do much sailing with your 100%.

Cheers, Bill

Hi Bill-

Yeah... I love that photo of #118. It's a blessing to have vintage photography of a boat you own now (I was 10 years old, sailing with my Dad on our King's Cruiser 28 when thos photos were shot!). There are several good shots of my boat in the 1969 Yankee brochure, and when Pacific took over production of the Dolphin from Yankee in the seventies, they took the same photos, airbrushed in a new sail number, and published them in their brochure. So Robin Lee is a bit of a celebrity. :)

The 100% working jib in the photos is no longer with the boat. My principal headsail is a 135% RF genoa. Pretty easy for me to control and tack, although I do need a winch handle when the wind gets above 8-10 knots.

Here's another shot from the 1969 Yankee brochure:


I promised some interiors. Here's a couple. She's a proper little yacht inside, including a head behind the forward bulkhead to starboard.




BTW, Bill- your Shields is breathtakingly pretty. That photo of her lying at mooring is beautiful. Long overhangs make all the difference, eh?
-EKE

Hi there -
Discussions of 24' boats catch my eye. Congratulations, your Dolphin is a sweet looking little cruiser. Just for yuks, I did a comparison on this SailCalc site (link below) and I was amazed at how closely the figures for the Dolphin matched up with my 1968 Paceship Westwind (a Ted Hood design). It was the mention of the SA/D ratio that made me do the comparison. Take a look:
http://www.image-ination.com/sailcalc.html

Haven't been back to this site for a while - been sailing and learning about my boat. Forgot how fond I'd gotten of all you wonderful old Plastic Classic folks. Keep going!

Mike

The Dolphin 24 is one sweet boat. It's nice to see that you're looking after her so well.

I also own a 24 foot boat. It's a Shark 24. She's more of a weekender-racer with not much in the way of creature comforts i.e. head, galley etc. Her forte is one design racing and that's how I use her for the most part. She's all the boat I need and she's small enough to single hand and maintain by myself.

Welcome to the forum and keep those photos coming!!

Thanks, Guys!

Mike- That boat comparison calculator is really great. Seems like they have a good big database of info. I bookmarked it for sure!

I looked at some info on the Westwind. Interesting...I've never seen it before. The numbers are similar to the Dolphin, although it looks like a really different hull type. It seems to be a true centerboarder, with a canoe hull form and a long board. The Dolphin has a full keel with attached rudder, more circular sections in the hull, and the centerboard is fairly small, and designed to optimize performance to weather. Lots of Dolphin owners have centerboards frozen in the UP position, and sail all the time with no board at all... and claim they can't tell the difference. I think that the boat points noticeably higher with the board down, perhaps 3-5 degrees. Just my anecdotal observation. I also have observed that adjusting the CB has a big effect on helm, particularly when the boat is pressed hard on a close reach. Pull the board up just 6" or so, and the helm is much reduced.

Lyman- There's a Shark on the dock a few slips away from Robin Lee. Although the boat need a bit of work, I've always admired it. It looks fast. I bet they get up and scoot with a kite up!

-EKE

Since you guys asked, here a few more pics of my Dolphin:










October 2009, halfway to Catalina Island - 30.5 NM passage from home port at Marina Del Rey, CA

EKE wrote: It looks fast. I bet they get up and scoot with a kite up!
-EKE

The Shark is reasonably fast in most weather as the racing weight is only 2300 lb. and they have a 20 foot waterline. They are a bit under canvassed for light air, not our favourite conditions, but this alleviates the need to reef in heavier air. Indeed, most Sharks, mine included, don't even have reef points in their mains. Five to Six knots is hull speed but in moderate air, six knots plus is typical on most points of sail. You're right about the capability under spinnaker. This past season we briefly hit 8.4 knots and averaged well over 7 knots most of that evening while under spinnaker. On another evening, we were short handed and chose not to fly the chute but still managed to hit 7 and 8 knots downwind with just the main and our #3 jib. We hit 9.2 knots briefly while surfing off some waves. It was quite a night as we rounded the marks in company with 35 footers which had a hard time shaking us!

Wow!, what a nice boat. Nice lines and she seems very seaworthy without looking fat or slow.
Found a new boat for my favorite top 10 boats. I`ve also visited : http://www.dolphin24.org/

Thanks for the pics of a very nice little boat!

I can't help notice the West Marine in the background of the pic where the boat is being blocked up....boy that must be handy!!

Brodie wrote:Thanks for the pics of a very nice little boat!

I can't help notice the West Marine in the background of the pic where the boat is being blocked up....boy that must be handy!!

Handy, and expensive. :)

Yep, West used to be right next to the yard here in Marina Del Rey. They recently closed it though, although there is another West store nearby.

I've found West Marine good for when I need something NOW....i.e. "instant gratification", but if I have the luxury of a bit more time, I'm finding that shopping online is much more cost effective. I'm a big fan of Defender Marine and Jamestown. I still spend a lot at West though. Instant is good sometimes :)

Erik,

Beautiful boat! Dolphin 24 is one of those boats I always admired. There is one here in Alameda (Aviva) that I run into from time to time. It's recently hauled out at Svendsens and I got a chance to take a more close-up look. It's as pretty close-up as from a distance.

Here is a photo of Yankee Dolphin #106, Parakletos (in Port Townsend at the time). She came dang close to saving Tim all those hours of crawling into small dark spaces.



Don't quite know why I didn't pull the trigger and get her. Fate I guess.

But I sure do like them.

Bill