HMCo #387p [Crew Launch for #385p Vara]

"Providence, April 25 [1929]. --- A gale tonight carried away the 150-foot mast of the yacht Resolute [#725s], famous defender of the America's Cup, at the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company's wharf at Bristol. The yacht was undergoing transformation from schooner to Marconi sloop rig, and her mast had been set in place only this morning.
In falling, the big stick, valued at $5,000, brought down about $2,000 worth of steel 'sheer legs' and crashed across the upper deck of Harold S. Vanderbilt's new steel yacht Vara [#385p], damaging the Vara's deckhouse and launches. ..." (Source: Anon. "Resolute's Mast Wrecked By Gale. 150-Foot Stick Breaks 15 Feet From Deck, Crashing on H. S. Vanderbilt's Vara." New York Times, April 26, 1929, p. 28.)

"... Commodore Harold S. Vanderbilt's 150-foot steel powerboat Vara [#385p], which was in line of the fall, April 25 [1929], of [#725s] Resolute's big mast and the steel shears on the pier, had the pilot house quite badly damaged, but last week so good time had been made in the repair that it was hard to find the scars. However, with the two launches on the davits that were also damaged it is another story. One [#386p] was so badly smashed that she will have to be replaced by a new boat [#390p], but the other [#387p] can be repaired. ..." (Source: Anon. "Yacht Yards South of Boston Busy With New Work And Fitting Out." Boston Globe, May 5, 1929, p. A63.)

• Vara (MIT Museum-made index card)
• Vara (MIT Museum-made index card)
• Note: The vessel index cards comprise two sets of a total of some 3200 cards about vessels built by HMCo, with dimensions and information regarding drawings, later or former vessel names, and owners. They were compiled from HMCo's early days until 1920 and added to in later decades, apparently by Hart Nautical curator William A. Baker and his successors. While HMCo seems to have used only one set of index cards, all sorted by name and, where no name was available, by number, later users at MIT apparently divided them into two sets of cards, one sorted by vessel name, the other by vessel number and greatly expanded the number of cards. Original HMCo cards are usually lined and almost always punched with a hole at bottom center while later cards usually have no hole, are unlined, and often carry substantially less information. All cards are held by the Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections of the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass.

• Vara owner launch and Vara crew launch
• Note: The L. Francis Herreshoff index cards comprise a set of some 1200 cards about vessels built by HMCo, with dimensions and / or ownership information. Apparently compiled in the early 1930s, for later HMCo-built boats like the Fishers Island 23s or the Northeast Harbor 30s are not included. Added to in later decades, apparently by L. F. Herreshoff as well as his long-time secretary Muriel Vaughn and others. Also 46 cards of L. F. Herreshoff-designed vessels. The original set of index cards is held by the Herreshoff Marine Museum and permission to display is gratefully acknowledged.

Year: 1928
E/P/S: P
No.: 387
Name: Vara K-15091

Source: Vermilya, Peter and Maynard Bray. "Transcription of the HMCo. Construction Record." Unpublished database, ca. 2000.

Note: The transcription of the HMCo Construction Record by Peter Vermilya and Maynard Bray was performed independently (and earlier) than that by Claas van der Linde. A comparison of the two transcriptions can be particularly useful in those many cases where the handwriting in the Construction Record is difficult to decipher.

"Crew's Launch for #385p Vara." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. February 14, 2009.)

"The construction of this launch apparently became necessary after Vara's crew launch, under construction at the Purdy Boat Company in Port Washington, L.I., had burned on March 28, 1928, together with three other boats during a boatyard fire as per Dinn, Alan E. and Ginger M. Martus. "The Purdys of Port Washington." Wooden Boat #126, September/October 1995, p. 36-47." The fire necessitated the rebuilding of the Purdy boatyard and the resulting delay in time may have prompted Vanderbilt to switch his order for the launch to the Herreshoffs.
Note that this launch was not a happy one either: It was damaged when Resolute's mast fell on Vara on April 25, 1929." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. December 17, 2010.)

"The HMCo Construction Record shows that this launch was contracted for on April 12, 1928, but note that the internal job number 15435 for this launch must have been assigned around April 4, 1927." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. February 17, 2015.)

Note: Research notes contain information about a vessel that is often random and unedited but has been deemed useful for future research.