This morning, looking out the office windows, what did we spy? Why, the beautiful Nellie, 1903 Herreshoff built gaff cutter! Lying peacefully at the end of the dock, she looked well conditioned and lively, despite the long and adventurous path of her life.
Nathanael G. Herreshoff, naval architect and engineer, with older brother John Brown Herreshoff, produced between 1893 and 1920 a succession of undefeated America’s Cup boats. Out of Bristol, RI, Herreshoff Mfg. Co.’s early work centered on steam-powered vessels, but by the 1890s the brothers began focusing on the yacht designs that would win their firm world renown. This fame also earned N. Herreshoff the title “Wizard of Bristol”. Herreshoff Mfg. Co. built its reputation chiefly on the sailboats it produced for America’s elite, including Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, & John Pierpont Morgan.
Herreshoff is cred
ited with being perhaps the most innovative sailboat designer of all time. His designs were notably graceful, impeccably designed, and speedy. Due to his many accomplishments, Herreshoff was among the few people ever to be made an honorary member of the New York Yacht Club, where his name is listed before England’s King George V and the Prince of Wales. As his fame spread around the world, the period of his greatest activity – from 1890 to 1920 – became known as the “Herreshoff Era”, so greatly did his personality and the yachts he designed dominate the sport.
Two virtually identical yachts to this design were built by the Herreshoff Mfg. Co. in 1902 and 1903, the first being Trivia for Harold S. Vanderbilt. The second was for Morton F. Plant, which he named Nellie. Both were full-keel boats based on the keel/centerboarder Azor that had come out a few months earlier. Original price for each was $6,300 – $6,400. In the biography of his father, L. Francis Herreshoff wrote, “… these three were among the nicest all-around sail boats of their size ever built.” Bought and sold upwards of ten times, Nellie raced from hand to hand, setting records and winning notable races.
NGH Hull No. 586 – Nellie (Also Ishkoodah, Ediana, Mariquita and Butterfly)
- Length Overall – 46′6″
- Length on designed waterline – 34′6″
- Displacement – 27,700
- Beam – 12′ 1″
- Draft – 7′0″
- Rig – Gaff Cutter
Azor, originally a Naushon Island-based boat for J. Malcolm Forbes, was lost in a hurricane, but Trivia is in the Herreshoff Marine Museum, and Nellie is…well, right down the gangplank.
(Information thanks to Herreshoff Museum: www.herresoff.org)
