Conference unifix::sailing

2198.0. "Rod Stephens dead at 85" by PCBUOA::MWEBER (The wind is free. Use it.) Tue Feb 28 1995 11:42

From Soundings (March 1995) Tim E. Stanton


On board Ranger more than a half century ago, Rod Stephens was known as Tarzan. 
With the agility and enthusiasm of youth, the budding yacht designer used to 
climb the J Class boat's mainstay hand-over-hand to tame a wayward halyard.

After winning a race on Constellation, he was known to take a seat on a winch 
drum, play his accordion and sing sea chanteys.

Roderick Stephens Jr., the innovative yacht designer and vetern of three 
successful America's Cup campaigns, died in his sleep at home in Scarsdale, 
N.Y., on Jan. 10. He was 85.

"Rod was the ultimate sailor," says Bill Langan, chief designer for Sparkman 
and Stephens, the New York Naval architecture firm co-founded by Rod's brother, 
Olin, and the late Drake Sparkman. "He brought to sailing a systemizing of 
practical issues of boating from the rig to sails and deck layout. He combined 
a love for sailing and people with a keen sense of boats that no one has been 
able to emulate."

Born in New York City, Stephens left Cornell University in 1928 to work at the 
Henery Nevins Boat Yard on City Island. He won a United States Medal of Freedom 
during World War II for his help on the design of an amphibious vehical known 
as the DUKW.

In 1933, Stephens joined Sparkman and Stephens. He went on to become an 
associate designer and later went on to serve as company president.

Stephens helped design and sail three Americas Cup defenders: Ranger in 1937, 
Columbia in 1958, and Constellation in 1964.

In 1930, he and Olin designed Dorade, which won the 1931 British Fastnet race 
and also took the Trans-Alantic Race from Newport that year.

Stephens was the former commodore of the Crusing Club of America and a memer 
of the New York Yacht Club, in addition to several other clubs. He was a member 
of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and an honorary member 
of the U.S. Naval Academy Fales Committee. He was chairman of the New Ship 
Committee of the Sea Education Association.

He is survived by his daughter, Betsy Stephens of Washigton, his brother, Olin, 
of Hanover, N.H., and his sister, Marguerite Stephens Sheridan of Seaford, Del.

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