I received the following reply today from Greg Dolan, who runs Seacoast Specialty Marine in Newburyport, MA. After you read his note, you will see he is a great resource for our Etchells fleet. You might consider having Greg do any projects that you don’t want to tackle yourself! He relocated his shop from Winthrop in 2017 and now is just 78 miles from Handy Boat down I-95.
Matt,
You came to the right place! Etchells are in my blood.
When the Etchells was designed for the keel boat competition in the 60s, Skip Etchell turned to my dad, Francis Dolan, and my mentor, Joe Duplin, who sailed together and were both Star North American and World Champions, to help market and sell the Etchells. Joe won the 1st Etchells Nationals with Dave Curtis and Rick Howard in boat #105. As a result, I’ve been working on Etchells with Joe since the mid 1970s (he since passed away in 2016).
Personally, I was on the US Sailing team for 12 years and raced the Etchells (#84, #500, #670, #711) and won many North American and World Championship races with Joe, Dave Curtis and Jud Smith. During the 80’s when I was campaigning the Star Boat on the US Sailing team I worked for Dave Curtis at Curtis boats doing all the keel fairing, bottom fairing as well as rigging primarily for Etchells, Solings and J24s. I believe that working hands on the boat makes one a better sailor. The hull must be right first, then the rig, then go sailing. I love to pass this knowledge on to help others become better sailors. It starts on the land. You’ll laugh, at 7 years old my Dad made me maintain the bottom of my own boat (Turnabout/N10) or I couldn’t race. I had to pull it out of the water every other day myself. I hated it then, and I appreciate it now.
I’ve had the privilege of both working, mentoring and sailing with the best sailors in the world. Joe, Paul Cayard, Tom Blackaller, Jud Smith, Dave Curtis, Dirk Kneulman, Robbie Doyle, Dennis Connor, Mark Reynolds to name a few. This has given me a greater understanding of yacht design, maintenance, racing and different points of view. The most valuable education I’ve had. I leverage this experience whether running a community sailing program or going to Australia to compete in the Etchell worlds.
We have a friend in the Falmouth/Portland area. One day at Handy Boat I noticed all the Etchells, some of which looked like I had previously worked the keels! I’ve worked on many of the older Tillotson & Pearson as well as Ontario models. What a great boat for fleet racing! Off a mooring or off a trailer. It’s wonderful that you have some of the low numbered boats.
I would love to be involved in helping your fleet and provide a good quality product that is long lasting to keep everyone competitive and having fun. And, educate the fleet on the history, the nuances, how to maintain the boat and keep the boat in good racing condition – whether it be for local fleet racing, the Nationals or World Championships. I have a great deal of experience maintaining fleets and keeping the boats even. I was Executive Director of Community Boating on the Charles River in Boston with 150 boats and 5500 members, maintained the MIT fleet with 100 boats, opened Piers Park sailing program with 30 boats (15 Sonars), taught programs at Courageous Sailing to the maintenance staff on proper fleet maintenance as well as many independent fleet projects for Tufts, Harvard, BU, Milton Academy, Onaway – whether it’s an Etchell or an Opti we do it all.