Herreshoff 12½
The small keelboat from Bristol that Nathanael Herreshoff designed to teach children to sail.
Nathanael Greene Herreshoff designed both America’s Cup yachts and small, sturdy boats for beginners. The Herreshoff 12½, named after its waterline length in feet, was designed in 1914 for summers on Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts.
The boat was so stable and easy to sail that several hundred were built, and it is still made in fibreglass to the same lines. It shows that a great designer could take as much care over the small as over the large.
Materials: Carvel planking of cedar or pine on oak frames, iron keel; later fibreglass
Manufacture: Built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in Bristol, Rhode Island, from 1914; later by other yards and in fibreglass.
The gaff rig with a four-sided mainsail between boom and gaff.
The large open cockpit.
The deep, stable hull with an iron keel.