Fortunately the modern enthusiasm for classic yacht racing arrived in time to save many Herreshoff designs that would otherwise have been lost for ever. Of the 18 New York 30s (above) launched in 1904-1905 no fewer than 12 are still sailing with even the occasional class start not unheard of. While building large yachts is ‘business’, as Herreshoff described it, small boats ‘will always be my passion’. The Herreshoff 12½(far left) was his most prolific one-design, with plenty of original boats still racing next to grp-hulled, gaff-rigged continuations. Herreshoff’s own favourite was always the catboat, however, this example (left) first going afloat at the turn of the last century
sails, anchor, stove, eating utensils and even (to quote the contract) ‘a small set of white dishes in racks’. ‘I am well pleased with it,’ Nat told one
owner, ‘and also it has been more pleasure to work on it.’ He added, ‘They will have a good lot of ballast and, I believe, plenty of stability and will be mighty good boats.’ The New York 30s had special rules,
too, in order to trim overhead. Haulouts were limited, as were purchases of new sails, professional crew and prizemoney. The New York Yacht Club later spon-
sored two more Herreshoff one-designs: the New York 50 and 40 classes, the first an all-out racer requiring a large profes- sional crew, the second more friendly to offshore sailing by amateurs. A few boats of each of these classes are still sailing and racing today, and so too are many boats in the Herreshoff S Class that the yard built during that period. This transition reflected changing boats
and also new values leading away from the excesses of the Gilded Age. ‘The 30, to me, represented an ideal,’ Olin Stephens wrote about the New York 30s, with their ‘honest simplicity and practicality, com- bined with excellent performance.’ A historian of one-design classes, Lewis
Kleinhaus, wrote in 1928, ‘It [yachting] was no longer the exclusive hobby of a comparatively small number of tremen- dously wealthy men, willing and able to employ professional captains and profes- sional crews, but was becoming more and more the pastime of many others, primarily interested in sailing their own boats.’
The Twelve and a Halves The smallest and most popular of Captain Nat’s one-designs was and remains the Herreshoff 12½, a weatherly and able keel daysailer with an overall length of 16ft. Initially and only briefly named ‘The Buzzards Bay Boys’ Boat’, the 12½ was
commissioned by another of the brothers’ regular clients, Robert E Tod, a Scottish- American banker, who had raced Her- reshoff schooners across the Atlantic. When he ordered a new 162ft schooner Tod made a special request. If the yard built him a small, open sailboat to hang from the yacht’s rail on davits, he and his family would be able to take an afternoon sail after dropping anchor. The project must have given pleasure to
Nat, that lover of small boats and easy afternoon voyages. The result was a handy 16ft sloop with a sweet sheer. The yard built 360 examples in wood. Today they are still available as the fibreglass 12½ with the original wooden gaff rig, and also as a Marconi-rigged boat called the Bullseye, with the 12½ hull plus a small cuddy. Several dozen active 12½s and their
sisters and cousins may now be found in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and Florida. Some 500 examples in
SEAHORSE 43 w
ALAMY
SANDEMAN YACHT COMPANY
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