HMCo #413s Sayonara

"[1892-05-09] Mon 9: Launched #413 catboat Sayonara. Shipped #416 [Alpha] to Boston.
[1892-05-12] Thu 12: ... Rigged #413, Sayonara.
[1892-05-13] Fri 13: Tried #413 [Sayonara].
[1892-05-16] Mon 16: ... Off in #418 [El Chico] and #413 [Sayonara].
[1892-05-17] Tue 17: Dr. Williams took #413 Sayonara." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1892. Manuscript (excerpts). Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection.)

"24' w.l. Centreboard boat.
Frame spaces 10 1/2".
Deduct for planking 7/8".
Deduct for timbers 1 to 21 inclusive 1 1/2".
Deduct for timbers 22 to 25 inclusive 1 3/8".
Deduct for timbers 26 aft inclusive 1 1/4".
Straight line on floor 5' 8" from zero." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. [Note (in ink and pencil) in Offset Booklet HH.4.073.] Undated, ca. October 1891. Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection, MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA.)

"... in the hands of the workmen is a 30-foot cat for a Mr. Williams of Philadelphia. She is 24 feet water line, and has a plumb stem. As she is intended for work in shallow waters along the New Jersey coast, she is of light draught as well as construction. Her lines are easy and she looks fast and able." (Source: Robinson, W. E. "New Gloriana." Boston Globe, November 15, 1891, p. 21.)

"Just ahead of the Morgan boat [#417s Drusilla] was a very handsome catboat [#413s Sayonara] of 30ft. over all and about 24ft. l.w.l., for Mr. Williams, of Philadelphia, who will use her on the New Jersey coast. There is but little overhang forward, but the bow sections are round and full. The workmanship and finish are specially good. ..." (Source: Anon. (W. P. Stephens?) "Building at Bristol." Forest and Stream, December 10, 1891, p. 421.)

"Providence, R. I., Dec. 26 [1891]. --- ... This is a very busy time at the Herreshoff Works. The thirty-five footer [#417s Drusilla] which is being built for E. D. Morgan of New-York is nearly planked. The fast twenty-four-footer [#413s Sayonara] which is being constructed for Mr. Williams of Philadelphia is practically completed." (Source: Anon. "A New Steam Yacht Building. To Be Used on the St. Lawrence by a New-York Gentleman." New York Times, December 27, 1891, p. 6.)

"... The cruising steam yacht [#170p Tranquillo] before described is still in the shop, as is the 25ft. cat [#413s Sayonara] for the Jersey coast." (Source: Anon. (W. P. Stephens?) "Building at Bristol." Forest and Stream, January 28, 1892, p. 93.)

"Bristol, R. I. April 18 [1892]. --- ... Com. Morgan's 35-footer [Drusilla #417s], Mr. Kersey's 25-rater [El Chico #418s], and the 30-foot catboat [Sayonara #413s] are ready for delivery at any time. ..." (Source: Anon. "Tried on all Tacks. ... Yachtsmen Anxious to See a Performance by the Fin Keel Boats." Boston Globe, April 19, 1892, p. 11.)

"... Providence, May 2 [1892]. --- ... Ten new boats are in the Herreshoff works. ... The twenty-four-foot catboat for Mr. Williams of Philadelphia, Sayonara, awaits the call of her owner. ..." (Source: Anon. "Wasp Sails For The Hudson." New York Times, May 3, 1892, p.3.)

"BRISTOL, R. I., May 11 [1892] --- The new Herreshoff boats are getting afloat one by one, and the present outlook is for a clearing of shops early in the season, save for the steel steamer [#172p Truant] for Mrs. Newberry of Detroit, which will not be ready until late in the summer. ...
The 25-foot cat [Sayonara #413s] for Mr. Williams of Philadelphia is afloat. ..." (Source: Anon. "New Yachts Afloat." Boston Globe, May 12, 1892, p. 2.)

"A catboat built by the Herreshoffs, at Bristol, R. I., put in here for a harbor Thursday [May 12 or May 19, 1892] and tied up at a Groton wharf to escape reporters, so the men in charge said, but the Grotoners gave him away. The name of the boat is the Sayonara and she is a cat-rigged shoal water Gloriana [#411s], being a miniature of that celebrated product of the Herreshoffs' yard which swept the deck last year. The Sayonara sailed this morning at 9.30 bound for Egg Harbor, New Jersey. She went down the harbor fluking, but once outside the light the little boat muat have had all she could stagger under as the wind was fresh and the sea high. She is 21 feet long, sets low in the water, is built on the keel rocker plate and has one ton of lead for outside ballast. Her owner joined the boat here. The cost of the boat is put at $1,650." (Source: Anon. "A Marine Visitor. A Catboat Built by the Herreshoffs Attracts Attention in the Harbor." New London Day, May 20, 1892, p. ?.)

"Narragansett Pier, May 28 [1892]. --- ... Edward H. Williams of Philadelphia arrived the other day with a new catboat which the Herreshoffs built for him." (Source: Anon. "Narragansett." New York Times, May 29, 1892, P. 12.)

"The catboat Sayonara, 25 feet water line, built in 1892 by the Herreshoff Company for Dr. Edward H. Wiliams, of Philadelphia, and attached to the Beach Haven (N. J.) Yacht Club, has, owing to her capabilities in speed and windward work, served as an object lesson to the yachtsmen on the New Jersey coast, between Barnegat Inlet and Atlantic City. She was the precursor of --- to them --- a hitherto unknown creation. Since her advent designs in hull and rig have been changed. The straight stem, the heavy, deep stern and the broad headed sails are no longer the standard, the overhang fore and aft and the high peaked sail taking their place. During the past winter the Sayonara has been changed to a cat yawl, the spars and rigging being supplied by the builders, the sails by Wilson & Silsby, of Boston. It will be interesting to watch the result of this new innovation." (Source: Anon. "Yachting News." New York Herald, May 23, 1894, p. 2.)

"N/A"

"[Item Description:] Typewritten and penciled table with data for 'Date of Order', '[Hull] No.', 'Name', 'Length on W.L.', 'Beam', 'Draft', 'Rig', 'Keel or Centerboard Keel', 'Ballast' for #400s CONSUELO, #401s ROMP, #402s CLARA, #403s CALYPSO, #404s COQUINA, #405s ALICE, #406s IRIS, #407s BIRD, #408s PELLICAN[sic], #409s GANNET, #410s MAB, #411s GLORIANA, #412s DILEMMA, #413s SAYONARA, #414s WASP, #415s WENONAH, #416s ALPHA, #417s DRUSILLA, #418s EL CHICO, #419s COQUINA 2ND, #420s REAPER and #421s BEE. Undated (data until 1891 is typewritten, thereafter penciled, suggesting that the table was prepared in January 1892 before EL CHICO, the first boat with a penciled year, was contracted for)." (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. (creator). Construction Record Table. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDW02_04530. Folder [no #]. No date (1892-01 ?).)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #413s Sayonara even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Grayson, Stan. Herreshoff Catboats. The Roots of a Boatbuilding Dynasty." Wooden Boat #289, November/December 2022, p. 58-67. (1,855 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Detailed, well-written story about Herreshoff catboats, from early boats such as Sprite and the four Julias which were all built before the founding off the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company to the numerous small catboats like Dandelion and Bluebell, many of which were delivered to Boston yachtsmen and most of which were also built before the founding of HMCo to the later, often very extreme and rule-beating catboats such as Wanda. With some minor errors, not all Julias were keelboats, Dexter Stone was from Philadelphia and not just a local yachtsman, Peri was not built for W. Starling Burgess, and Bluebell was built for Ed. Burgess with no proof that this was Edward Burgess.

• Sayonara (HMCo-made index card)
• Olive ex-Sayonara (HMCo-made index card)
• Olive ex-Sayonara and #413p Courier (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.

Name: Sayonara
Type: Cat
Length: 24'6"
Owner: Williams, E. H.

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

• Sayonara
• 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.

Name: Sayonara
Type: 25' 3" cat
Owner: E. H. Williams
Year: 1892
Row No.: 599

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.

Month: Oct
Day: 19
Year: 1891
E/P/S: S
No.: 0413
Name: Sayonara
LW: 24' 6"
B: 11' 0"
D: 2' 0"
Rig: Cat
CB: y
Ballast: Lead
Amount: $1750.00
Notes Constr. Record: 1/2 lead outside.
Last Name: Williams
First Name: E. H.

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.

"#428s Merry Thought was built with modifications from same construction plan as Sayonara. LOA 29' 10" from HMCo construction plan." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. May 2, 2008.)

"Built in 203 days (contract to launch; equivalent to $9/day, 37 lbs displacement/day)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 16, 2024.)

"Displacement 7500lbs from note in NGH design booklet entry dated October 27, 1891." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. September 17, 2014.)

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