HMCo #972s Felix

Particulars

Construction_Record_Title.jpgName: Felix
Type: Warwick Fish Class
Designed by: NGH
Contract: 1925-11-9
Delivered: 1926-4 ?
Construction: Wood
LWL: 16' (4.88m)
Rig: Marconi Sloop
Keel: yes
Built for: Huntoon & Washburn, William C. & John C. B.
Amount: $1,900.00
Note(s) in HMCo Construction Record: Warwick Neck Class

Note: Particulars are primarily but not exclusively from the HMCo Construction Record. Supplementary information not from the Construction Record appears elsewhere in this record with a complete citation.


Model

Model #716Model number: 716
Model location: H.M.M. Model Room North Wall Right

Vessels from this model:
409 built, modeled by NGH

Original text on model:
"12 1/2' Buzzards Bay boy class 24 boats 1915 scale 1/10 size three [sic, i.e. four? #806, #813, #815, #817?] boats 1916
16' w.l. Oyster Bay "Fish Class" 23 boats 1916 scale 1/12 size sections 1/13 lengths 3 1/2 added at bow on deck" (Source: Original handwritten annotation on model. Undated.)

Model Description:
"12'-1/2' lwl Buzzards Bay 12 1/2-class of 1915, HMCo's most popular creation with some 360 boats produced. Also, with change in scale and proportionally longer bow, the Fish class sloops of 1916 and beyond." (Source: Bray, Maynard. 2004.)

Related model(s):
Model XA2-1_01 by NGH (1914?); sail
Buzzards Bay 12 1/2
Model XA2-1_02 by NGH (1914?); sail
Fish Class


Note: Vessels that appear in the records as not built, a cancelled contract, a study model, or as a model sailboat are listed but not counted in the list of vessels built from a model.


Offsets

Offset booklet number(s): HH.6.146-6

Offset booklet contents:
12 1/2-footer class, Fish class (Cape Cod Shipbuilding Embargoed)


Offset Booklet(s) in Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection. Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Mass. (Restricted access --- see curator.)

Drawings

Explore all drawings relating to this boat.

List of drawings:
   Drawings believed to have been first drawn for, or being first referenced to
   HMCo #972s Felix are listed in bold.
   Click on Dwg number for preview, on HH number to see at M.I.T. Museum.
  1. Dwg 074-043 (HH.5.05328); Bronze Turnbuckles (1904-04-12)
  2. Dwg 025-089 (N/A): # 788 Class Lists (1915-01-29 ?)
  3. Dwg 076-123 (N/A); Sewanhaka 16' Class 788 Class (1916-01-26 ?)
  4. Dwg 081-117 (HH.5.06209): Spars for Seawanhaka, 16 ft. Class (1916-02-18)
  5. Dwg 074-062 (HH.5.05350): 12 and 16 lbs Anchors (1916-03-04)
  6. Dwg 091-169 (N/A): Rigging & Block List 16'-0" Class (1925-06-08 ?)
  7. Dwg 128-091 (HH.5.10216): Sails > Fish Class # 972 16 ft. Marconi (1925-09-01)
  8. Dwg 074-043 A (HH.5.05329); Bronze Turnbuckles (1927-03-07)
  9. Dwg 148-000 (HH.5.12237): General Arrangement > Fish Class, Herreshoff 16 Footer [Internal Arrangement] (ca. 1931)
  10. Dwg 130-000 (HH.5.10541): Sails > [Herreshoff Fish Class Marconi] (ca. 1934-10)
Source: Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Mass. Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection. Together with: Hasselbalch, Kurt with Frances Overcash and Angela Reddin. Guide to The Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection. Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Mass., 1997. Together with: Numerous additions and corrections by Claas van der Linde.
Note: The Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection is copyrighted by the Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections of the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass. Permission to incorporate information from it in the Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonné is gratefully acknowledged. The use of this information is permitted solely for research purposes. No part of it is to be published in any form whatsoever.

Documents

Nathanael G. Herreshoff

"[1926-07-10] Sat 10: Took a fine sail in Alerion with Ann & Agnes to Warwick to see race of 16 footers [Warwick Fish Class #939s to #941s and #972s to #977s] in Westbay. Strong S breeze and choppy." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1926. Manuscript (excerpts). Diary access courtesy of Halsey C. Herreshoff.)

Other Contemporary Text Source(s)

"Sales of the week: ... the Seawanhaka Fish class sloop Felix was sold by J. B Smull of Cold Spring Harbor to H. T. Cavanaugh." (Source: Ramsay, Jack. "Sails, Spars and Gadgets." Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 26, 1937, p. 21.)

Other Modern Text Source(s)

"1929. ... The class of Herreshoff 16-foot waterline knockabouts at the Warwick Country Club was sold, most of them to Cold Spring Harbor, to make way for 13 new German-built Atlantic Class sloops. ..." (Source: Davis, Jeff. Yachting in Narragansett Bay. Providence, 1946, p. 43.)

"... About 40 Fish Class sloops were built at the Herreshoff Company between 1916 and 1925. In 1925, a fleet of 7 boats, all named after popular cartoon characters, was delivered to members of the newly organized Warwick Country Club at Warwick Neck, RI. These boats carried the increasingly popular marconi rig. The Warwick Neck Class was sold to a group in Cold Spring Harbor, NY when their owners moved up to the Burgess designed Atlantic sloops." (Source: Herreshoff Marine Museum Chronicle, Fall 1989, p. 3.)

"The first 16 footers were designed and built by N. G. Herreshoff in 1916 for the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club of Oyster Bay, Long Island. ... The next fleet of boats was a group of three built for the Warwick Country Club of Warwick Neck R.I. These boats were delivered for the 1925 sailing season. They sold for $1750. ... Six additional boats joined the WCC fleet in the 1926 season. Once again, the price increased, this time to $1900. The nine boats of the WCC fleet were marconi rigged, with moulded oak sheer strakes and were named for cartoon characters. They were trimmed with oak also." (Source: Meyer, Richard. "Herreshoff 16 Foot Class History." (History written on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Fish Class.) Norwell, Massachusetts, January, 1991. In: http://www.herreshoffregistry.org/doc/Fish_History_Meyer.pdf, retrieved August 19, 2010.)

"The Warwick Neck fleet only sailed actively for a short time before the members decided to replace the boats with the larger and faster Starling Burgess designed Atlantic class. Upon replacement, many of the marconi Warwick Country Club (WCC) boats went to Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. From that point the boats began to lose their fleet identity and become harder to trace." (History written on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Fish Class.) Norwell, Massachusetts, January, 1991. In: http://www.herreshoffregistry.org/doc/Fish_History_Meyer.pdf, retrieved August 19, 2010.)


Supplement

From the 1920 and earlier HMCo Index Cards at the MIT Museum
  • 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.
From the 1931 HMCo-published Owner's List

Name: Felix
Type: J & M
Length: 16'
Owner: Huntoon, William C. and John C. Washburn

Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. "A Partial List of Herreshoff Clients." In: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. Herreshoff Yachts. Bristol, Rhode Island, ca. 1931.

From the 1930s L. Francis Herreshoff Index Cards at the Herreshoff Marine Museum
  • 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.
From the 1953 HMCo Owner's List by L. Francis Herreshoff

Name: Felix
Type: 16' J & M
Owner: Wm. C. Huntoon & John C. Washburn
Row No.: 223

Source: Herreshoff, L. Francis. "Partial List of Herreshoff-Built Boats." In: Herreshoff, L. Francis. Capt. Nat Herreshoff. The Wizard of Bristol. New York, 1953, p. 325-343.

From the 2000 (ca.) Transcription of the HMCo Construction Record by Vermilya/Bray

Month: Nov.
Day: 09
Year: 1925
E/P/S: S
No.: 0972
Name: Felix
OA: 16'
Rig: J & M
K: y
Amount: 1900.00
Notes Constr. Record: Warwick Neck Class.
Last Name: Wm. c. Huntoon, Jr. & J.C.B. Washburn

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.

Note

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Citation: HMCo #972s Felix. Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonné. https://herreshoff.info/Docs/S00972_Felix.htm.