W ayne Ettel could never have imagined that themoment would come when he, as a youngboatwright, would be telling one of the world'smost-respected naval architects that there was a flaw inthe designer's masterpiece-and that he, Ettel, knewhow to fix it.But here he was, in 1983, wearing his flowery Hawaiian shirt, and seated in the posh inner sanctum of the prestigious Ardell Yacht & Shipbrokers in Newport Beach, California, where men in blazers and ties make million-dollar deals on trophy boats. He was talking with none other than Olin Stephens, co-founder of the design firm Sparkman & Stephens (S&S), by speaker phone, about the leaky garboards in one of the grand dames of the Southern California racing circuit: CHU-BASCO. The yacht, one of several S&S legends from the 1930s, was Ardell's flagship, S&S design No. 255.
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