Olin J. Stephens II, no name is more synonymous with the world of yacht design than Olin Stephens. His is the signature that has been stamped on the drawings of more than 2000 boats including a record eight America's Cup winners in a career that spanned more than 50 years.

The son of a coal merchant, Olin Stephens was born in 1908 and although he was brought up in New York, he spent his summers with his brother Rod learning to sail on the New England coast. A burgeoning passion for sailing and sailing boats took him to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but after a term the 19-year-old Olin left and took his career onto a more practical path, joining a working yacht design company. It was a decision he would never regret.

In 1993, Stephens was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame. Several years later, in 2000, Olin wrote the autobiography "All This and Sailing Too". In 2007 Stephens was named as one of six inductees to the inaugural ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame. On April 13, 2008 he celebrated his 100th birthday.

And as the legend to whom many current yacht designers pay tribute as an innovator and original thinker, Olin Stephens still has a passion for a sport he took up as a child. He still sails today.