The Herreshoff 12 ½’s

Popularity is not necessarily much of an indicator of good design in one-design classes; there are plenty of examples of popular designs that are nothing special but hit the spot for reasons of cost, availability or marketing; or simply because the founders of the class paid for the design and some were well motivated to make it work.

However, when a design is in practically continuous production for over a century, spawns dozens of imitations, triggers lawsuits and earns itself such sobriquets as “the finest small boat of all time”, you’d be a fool not to assume that this was the exception that proves the rule. The original name of the Herreshoff 12½ was the “Buzzard’s Bay Boy’s Boat” and that is actually all you really need to know.

We tend to teach people to sail in dinghies. This is curious in a way; certainly it forces you to get to grips with the reality that water is often cold, but it must be responsible for a large proportion of people who drop out of the sport; choose your first day badly and you can spend a high proportion of it bored, scared, wet, or all three. If your first day was on a 12½, chances are surely much better that you’d come back for more. For one thing these are keel boats, with a hefty ballast ratio (approaching 50 per cent), a healthy beam/length ratio and modest rig; your chances of capsizing one is vanishingly small. Then they are deep enough to offer security when it first starts to heel; it’s large enough for friends to share the experience and move about without imperiling anything; and lastly it is responsive enough to reward but forgiving enough not to punish inexperience.

You can forget everything else and concentrate solely on the pleasure of sailing, that hugely satisfactory process of obtaining near-silent propulsion by capturing the wind; a compelling idea for beginners and experienced alike.

With that behavior in mind the lines and sail plan hold few surprises. This is small for a keelboat; just 16ft long, and 12ft 6in on the waterline. Her waterline beam is relatively narrow to keep her moving when it’s light; she needs the help, with just 140sq ft of sail and 1,500lb of weight. The flared topsides add stability as she heels and give her a generous cockpit for her size. Any piece of water that you can sail a boat with a draught of 2ft 6in on is going to have enough fetch to throw up at least some chop, so her bold sheer and buoyant bow sections make sense, and she looks capable of handling a reasonable swell if called on. Much is made of her hollow waterlines; they certainly put the boat in good company with Herreshoff’s own Alerion (1912) and Pleasure (1925), and the near-legendary Newport 29s, but the hollow is pretty modest (about ¾” over 4’) so it’s probably mostly that the fine entry helps keep her moving when the going is light.

Here is a boat which is a perfect match to the original design brief – her enduring appeal may well be that she is such a great boat to learn on, and the affection that generates. First loves are unforgettable, after all.

Theo Rye: Classic Boat Magazine / July 2017

Principle Dimensions and Information

Designer: NG Herreshoff

Builder: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company / Bristol, RI

Manufacturers Hull #: 1442

Year Built: 1938

LOA: 15’, 8 ½”

LWL: 12’, 6 ¾”

Beam: 5’, 10”

Draft: 2’, 5”

Displacement: 1,250 lbs.

Ballast: 735 lbs.

Sail Area: 140 sq. ft.

Rig Type: Gaff-Headed Sloop

Hull and Deck Construction

Full keel with transom hung rudder underwater configuration

Carvel planking

Cedar planking over White Oak frames, floors, stem, keel, deadwood and transom.

Bronze screw fastenings

Varnished, molded Mahogany sheer strake.

Varnished Mahogany toe rails, cockpit coamings, cockpit seats and transom.

Cedar cockpit sole with painted (Gray) finish.

Decks are of cedar planking over fir deck beams with painted canvas over lay.

Fore and aft cockpit bulkheads are of marine plywood with White painted finish

Transom hung White Oak rudder with bronze pintails and gudgeons and varnished White Oak tiller.

Exterior color scheme: Green bottom, Red boot stripe, White topsides, Varnished sheer strake and transom.

Interior color scheme: White hull interior and bulkheads, Varnished transom, aft deck, cockpit coamings, seat tops, lazarette door and misc. trim.

Coriolis is constructed with original factory installed air chambers under cockpit seating allowing the boat to remain afloat if cockpit is flooded.

Deck and Cockpit Hardware

Bronze bow chocks and bow cleat

Bronze stern cleats

Bronze pad eyes for jib sheet fore deck blocks

Bronze oar lock sockets on cockpit coaming

Bronze main sheet traveler

Bronze pad eye for main sheet block

Bronze chain plates and stem iron

All running rigging blocks are of bronze construction

Bronze halyard cleats

Spars and Rigging

Gaff-rigged sloop configuration

Varnished Sitka Spruce mast, boom and  jib club

Aluminum spinnaker pole

Stainless steel 1x19 wire standing rigging (shrouds and headstay) with chrome bronze turnbuckle adjusters

Sheets (main, jib and spinnaker) of traditional 3-strand Dacron line.

Halyards (main, jib, spinnaker and topping lift) of traditional 3-strand Dacron line

Varnished Ash mast hoops

All jib and mainsheet turning blocks of bronze fabrication

Bronze sail track on boom and jib club.

Sails and Canvas

North Sails main sail

North Sails jib

North Sails spinnaker

Sail Bags

Additional Equipment

Anchor and anchor ride

Hand Bilge pump

PFD’s / life jackets

Oar

Boat Hook

Misc sheets and lines

Wooden cradle