Owen P. Merrill was a noted American yacht designer, yachtsman, and sail maker. As a young man, Merrill was employed at Stephens at Sparkman & Stephens in Scarsdale New York. In 1931, he was a member of the crew aboard Dorade which won the Transltlantic Race and the Fastnet race. He also worked for the H.B. Nevins yard in City Island, New York. Initially a chief bosun in the U.S. Coast Guard Temporary Reserve, he skippered the sailing yacht ‘Edlu’ in the “off-shore yacht patrol” in the early part of World War II. Later, he joined the Naval Reserve and commanded a 110′ wooden subchaser. Following that assignment, he served as navigator aboard an LSD and Fleet Tanker, seeing action at Leyte Gulf, Lingayen Gulf, as Okinawa. After the war, he worked in Philadelphia for Thomas Bowes, designing small steel commercial vessels. In 1952, he went into the sail making business in Delanco, New Jersey, which he continued into his late 60’s.
