# Sparkman and Stevens



## bigsarg1 (Aug 24, 2005)

can anyone tell me about these boats (Sparkman and Stevens)? Also, I can not find the value w/ boat.com NADA chart. Is there another boat buying price web page?


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## awayocean (Oct 12, 2004)

www.yachtworld.com


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## owenmccall (Feb 10, 2004)

Sparkman & Stevens were (and still are) yacht designers, not boat builders. Their reputation led some builders to use S&S in the model name, for instance my boat is called an "S&S 30" but was built by Aquafibre in England. However, they also designed a lot of boats that do not carry "S&S" in the name, e.g. Tartan 30, Swan 39, etc. 

Owen


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

Sparkman and Stephens is very historic high quality yacht design firm. Originally started by Olin and Rod Stephens and Drake (I believe) Sparkman. Olin Stephens (now well up in his 90''s) was a master of refining and improving the design of yachts rather than out and out inventing design concepts from whole cloth. His first breakthrough design was Dorade (mid-1930 or so if I remember correctly), which was an adaptation of coastal racing yacht design for offshore transatlantic racing.

S&S has been quite prolific producing 100''s of designs which generally offered a nice blend of speed, seaworthiness and reasonable sturdiness. The possible exception to that would be thier boats from the IOR era which tend to be a little extreme for my taste, producing boats that were hard to handle, with uncomfortable motion comforts. (I owned a small S&S design from that era.)

Over the years Sparkman and Stephens served as a hatching ground for some of the top yacht designers of the 1930-1990''s.

Jeff


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## scottmillington (Nov 17, 2005)

Sparkman and Steven is still active today with an office in NYC. Their website is easy to find. Mitch Neff runs the brokerage and is extremely knowledgable. I had the pleasure of sailing with Olin Stevens last summer at the Wooden boat regatta in Maine. He still is an avid sailor.


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## copacabana (Oct 1, 2007)

At the risk of being flamed and roasted for bringing up a dead thread ... It just so happens that I am going to visit a S&S for sale and would like to know more about the boat. It's a S&S Impala 35 made in Italy in 1985 (also known as a "Clara" or "Sagitta" 35). It looks just like the famous S&S 34 that has such a great offshore record. Can anyone tell me something about the boat? And once again, sorry to drag up an old thread, but I came across it using the search function (and I suspect that's how a lot of old threads are revived).
Thanks.


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

Well, at least you have a good reason and it's not a "Me, too!" post.

If we accept as reasonable the premise that S&S rarely drew a bad cruising design, then the reputation of the builder comes into play, as more than one great design has been completely sabotaged by cheap or incompetent builders.

Found this: http://www.marevela.com/clara.htm

It appears to be a fairly old, transitional design (1973), produced into the '80s. If it's IOR influenced, you're going to want to know that. I like the underbody, though (it's a little like a Nicholson 35), and the sail balance isn't so giant-genoa dominated that it's likely to be squirrelly downwind. It seems certainly worth a look. Given the age, it's probably going to be either in good, well-maintained condition, or a wreck. A well-found boat with functional, if elderly, equipment can sometimes be a real bargain...consider, however, that the diesel is now rare and may be worn out.


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## Faster (Sep 13, 2005)

Good find, that link, Val!

Can't read it all but there seems to be a bit of reference to Peterson's Ganbare design in the literature... Copa can probably sort that out. Odd reference because the P35 was the boat that obseleted the designs such as the Clara and her generation.

She also bears some resemblance to the Hughes designs, also by S&S.


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## CharlieCobra (May 23, 2006)

My Knutson was derived from the S&S Pilot 33 design # 539. Great CCA design.


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## copacabana (Oct 1, 2007)

Yes, that's the boat (the Clara I mean). The one I'm going to see has a new Yanmar diesel and has tons of upgrades. I haven't seen it yet, but it's supposed to be in great shape. It's not cheap though. Charlie, do you think this boat is going to have the bad habits of the more extreme IOR boats? I'm not planning to race with it- it's for family cruising. If it's like a Nicholson 35, as you mention, it can't be bad!
Thanks


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## CharlieCobra (May 23, 2006)

I don't know, never sailed one. The S&S designed Catalina 38 has the wobble downwind with the chute up but not as bad as some I've seen.


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## Valiente (Jun 16, 2006)

It doesn't look extreme in the hull with that fin and the skeg, but the overhangs do shout 1973.

This is hardly a bad thing, but it's a small consideration. I would buy a '70s cruiser with racy elements in a heartbeat for offshore work, because it's going to be still far more cruiser-ish, if you follow, than the current crop of lightweight production boats. The part-skeg argues that it will track decently, and S&S designs tend not to be as twitchy in my view as say, C&Cs of that era, which were and are great boats that you don't want to ride on a 40 knot run downwind. Again, there's a huge spectrum between "sea kindly", "uncomfortably rolly on a run", "positively squirrelly above 25 knots" and "will frequently broach". None of those descriptions contains the phrase "unsafe", but most 1970-1985 production boats will fall into one of those categories, due to the race-rule derived design elements then prevalent, and to the fact that most people, most of the time, wanted under-40 footers to be club racers with the capacity to be weekend cruisers, and not much else. Only in a few places, like Northern Europe or South Africa, are conditions such (or potentially such) that offshore-capable and race-capable cruisers tend to overlap, because the general conditions of wind and tide can make even inshore waters pretty fierce.

Talk to Jim_H with his freshly bought Rival 34, which this also resembles a bit.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Sparkman & Stephens had many designs for other companies: Yankee 30; Tartan 37; Swan 36; Seguin 46; Nauticat 43 ketch; Hylas 47; Hughes 38; Fuji 40; Columbia 35; Catalina 38 and others. Most were beautiful hulls with efficient sail plans. Can't go too wrong if it was designed by S&S.

Randy
C&C 27


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## Merritt Fallis (Jul 9, 2021)

TSOJOURNER said:


> Sparkman & Stephens had many designs for other companies: Yankee 30; Tartan 37; Swan 36; Seguin 46; Nauticat 43 ketch; Hylas 47; Hughes 38; Fuji 40; Columbia 35; Catalina 38 and others. Most were beautiful hulls with efficient sail plans. Can't go too wrong if it was designed by S&S.
> 
> Randy
> C&C 27


I owned a Fuji 40, and lived aboard for six years. It was SLOW in light winds, but really did well when things picked up a bit. In a 30 mile race with all sorts of similar-sized boats, I came in second to a 50 foot Jeanneau, but that was only because the wind freshened up quite a bit. I sailed that boat 33,000 miles, including a year-long trip from Seattle to southern Mexico. The Fuji 40 won't win any beauty contests, but it's a solid cruiser, and a great liveaboard.


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## Michael Bailey (Sep 10, 2021)

We had a custom cruising Sparkman stevens boat that was very good at what it was designed to do. The helm was perfectly balanced. It would regularly sail at or close to its expected hull speed. It sailed to weather well. The only time it broached on me was my fault. It was not long ended at all and had a good motion in a rough sea. We put in respectable passages but she was no racer. Like I said, I think that she was very good at what she was designed to do. I think that's what we should be looking for.


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## seattle sailor (Sep 5, 2020)

I have a Nautor Swan 40, aka PJ40, designed by S&S, built 1971. I have owned her since 1992 and sailed around Seattle and adjacent waters like Queen Charlotte islands. Wonderful boat, comfortable motion never pounds, not squirrely. No waterleaks after all these years. Engine: Perkins 4-108 still starts every time. Looking for female crew to go sailing all summer. can teach an intelligent one. I'm 90 years old.


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## LaPoodella (Oct 5, 2018)

seattle sailor said:


> I have a Nautor Swan 40, aka PJ40, designed by S&S, built 1971. I have owned her since 1992 and sailed around Seattle and adjacent waters like Queen Charlotte islands. Wonderful boat, comfortable motion never pounds, not squirrely. No waterleaks after all these years. Engine: Perkins 4-108 still starts every time. Looking for female crew to go sailing all summer. can teach an intelligent one. I'm 90 years old.


Hard to recommend you to female crew if you don’t let people look at your profile.


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