Ruby Dornis Ben Dornis

When you enter the door at Victor Model Products (VMP) the first person you are likely to meet is Ruby Dornis, who, along with George Dornis own and operate VMP. Chances are if you ever call VMP, it's Ruby's voice you will hear on the other end. The next person you are likely to see is Ben Dornis, their grandson and the company's Webmaster.

It only takes a moment to realize that VMP is a family run business. As a matter of fact all the sails for all VMP boats are make by Adelle Kelly and Margaret Mercer, George's sisters. These two ladies, both of whom are now in their 70's, have made somewhere around 38,000 sets of sails for VMP boats! That's got to be a Guinness World record!

George Dornis is a friendly fellow who loves building and sailing sailboats. Over the years his products have ended up in the hands of most of the great sailors of the world. George loves to tell the story of giving a fleet of V-32s one year to a pack of world-class skippers who sailed them all over the place at the Long Beach Yacht club. Paul Cayard's white-hulled V-32 is in VMP's display room where George showed me the autographed boat.

Let's look in on the process of building a V-32 and learn a little history of the V-32 design.

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All field trip images by Russell Sipe except where noted.
Three sailboats photo by Baron Mludek