March 29, 2012. We didn't know anything about this boat - except that Les Breeland posted a problem with a winch on the Sailnet Forum in July, 2007. We sporadically tried to track A-Breeze down - to no avail. Today we received an email response to our most recent follow up effort with some bad news. Here is Les' email (edited)

Ron,
Thanks for your message. I am no longer using my aol email address. Alas, my beauty met with an unfortunate accident and was scrapped. She slipped her mooring in a storm and ended up bruised and battered against a cement pier. I was heart-broken. I am currently between boats, but I really loved to sail my Yankee Dolphin #171.

I took the opportunity to see the very nice website you have put together. Assembling all the Dolphin content is really a labor of love. Terrific job.

Happy Sailing in Marionette.

Kind Regards, Les

We'll try to to get some more info about A-Breeze. While we don't know exactly where A-Breeze is we do know she is no longer with us and has joined the other 6 boats that have been lost. She is, therefore, our 193rd 'found Dolphin"

Stay tuned

This is Les's post on the Sailnet Forum. This was part of an exchange with Doug Pease, Aspara

On 7/8/07, lgbreeland wrote:

Hello all,

I have some questions for the forum on the mast mounted winch. During a blow we had earlier this year my winch seems to have lost the C-ring that secures the drum to the winch spindle. Now that I am trying to remove it, I cannot get the drum to slide off in order to examine the whole thing and to get a proeprly fitting replacement ring.

I have a Yankee Dolphin 24, hull 171, made by Yankee Yachts in SoCal. The winch is a type brass that takes the winch handle through a slot on the side.

Any thoughts on what I might be missing/forgetting in order to non-destructibly remove the drum and entire winch would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Les , A-Breeze, #171