Meryl Grandy

Design 283 Avoca

Avoca is a classic S&S commuter. She is very similar to motoryacht Phoenix, design #145, but designed and built four years later. The profile of the two boats are virtually identical. Interestingly she was designed for the same client as Phoenix, a Mr. E. E. Dickinson, Jr.

Dickinson was the son of the founder of E. E. Dickinson & Company of Connecticut who produced commercially distilled witch hazel. What one does with witch hazel I can't tell you but I believe it was a remedy for a number of minor illnesses, developed by local American Indians.

The boat was built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company of Bristol, Rhode Island and launched in 1939. She was powered by twin Kermath Sea Raider engines developing 500 hp each for a top speed of 31 mph.

Here are a couple of early articles about the boat.


Here are the plans.