HMCo #744s Robin

"[1915-05-14] Fri 14: Very fine [with] l[ight] N to E [in] AM. S[outh wind in] PM. Launched #743 [sic; i.e. #744s Robin, #743s would have been Haswell] Robin, [a] 12-1/2 footer. ...
[1915-05-15] Sat 15: Very fine [with] l[ight] W to NW [wind]. Sailed in Robin [#744s] in PM with Agnes and called at Pt. Pleasant.
[1915-05-23] Sun 23: Fresh NW [wind]. Took sail in Robin [#744s], 12-1/2 footer, in AM & called at Pt. Pl[easant. ...
[1915-05-31] Mon 31: Very fine. Calm in AM. Mod[erate S [in] PM. Rigging Oleander [#710s] & off in 12 footer Robin [#744s] for sail in PM." (Source: Herreshoff, Nathanael G. Diary, 1915. Manuscript (excerpts). Diary access courtesy of Halsey C. Herreshoff.)

"Oct[ober] 28 1914
No 744 & class [#744s, #745s, #746s, #747s, #748s, #749s, #750s, #751s, #752s, #753s, #754s, #755s, #756s, #757s, #758s, #759s, #760s, #761s, #762s, #765s].
Small keel sailing knockabout boats.
-> Scale of Model 1/10 size. Use 10" scale. <- (This applies to all following measurements of stem[?] & cross sections.)
Frame spaces 7 1/2" by common scale.
Timbers 13/16" sq[uare] by common scale.
Planking 7/16 cedar by common scale. (Deduct in making moulds 1 1/4".)
Deck 7/16 by common scale.
Sheer height given is top of deck.
Keel 1 1/8", 3/4" below rabbate.
Transom 5/8" by common scale.
Stem sided 1 5/8" by common scale.
Sheer strake (moulded) 7/8" by common scale.
[New page] #744 & Class. Bulls Eye [may be a later addition].
Top of lead to follow under side of main keel from 7 1/2 frame space (7 spaces + 3 3/4") to 2 1/4" aft of # 14 space. Then in straight line to a point 3/4" up from heel of sternpost.
Bottom of keel 3/4" below rabbate." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. Penciled notes in Offset Booklet HH.6.146-6.] October 28, 1914. Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection, MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA.)

"[We built] also the first lot of about twenty-five [fall and winter of 1914-15] of the Buzzards Bay Twelve and One-Half Footers." (Source: Herreshoff, N. G. "Some of the Boats I Have Sailed In." Written 1934. In: Pinheiro, Carlton J. (ed.). Recollections and Other Writings by Nathanael G. Herreshoff. Bristol, 1998, p. 72-73.)

"Herreshoff 12 1/2 Footer
written by
A. Sidney DeWolf Herreshoff
in 1974
While managing the campaign for RESOLUTE during the trials in the summer of 1914, Robert W. Emmons got my father (Nathanael G. Herreshoff) to design a small ballasted, sloop rigged boat that would be suitable for teaching small boys how to sail and to become familiar with the characteristics of the type of larger boat to which they would later graduate.
Mr. Emmons had a summer home on Toby's Island at the head of Buzzards Bay. He had several friends from the vicinity of Boston who also had summer homes at the head of the bay. Thus, there were plenty of children who could make good use of such a boat there. At first, the class was known as 'Buzzards Bay Boys Boats'.
The order for the first fleet of these boats was received by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in the autumn of 1914. The first boat was ROBIN, H.M.C. Building No. 744 built for Stuart Duncan at the price of $420.00. There were 19 boats in the first fleet with building numbers running consecutively to No. 762.
Although these boats have very ample stability afforded by heavy fixed ballast, it is possible to swamp them on account of the large open cockpit. For this reason a large airtight compartment was provided by a watertight bulkhead just forward of the mast. The theory was that although the boat would be out of trim when swamped, she would stay afloat long enough to be towed ashore. This proved to be true at first, but after the boats aged, the airtight compartments became unreliable and a few boats were lost. As an additional precaution, the side seats consisted of four buoyant cedar boards which would float free to serve as life preservers. Many years later, once styrofoam became available, it has been used to give the old boats sufficient floatation.
Of course, originally the gaff rig was used, and still is in use on Buzzards Bay. However, in the early twenties, there was a call for jib headed 'marconi' mainsails. Several boats were provided with masts extending to about the height of the peak of a gaff rig. The 'leg o mutten' mainsail used the original boom and the original jib was continued.
Shortly before World War II, a fleet of 12 1/2 footers was built for Fisher's Island. Although built on the same molds, these boats differed from the original by having a short after deck on a level with the sheer and with the tiller raised above this level. This gave more stowage aft. There was no bulkhead so the space forward of the mast was available. Floatation was provided by copper tanks under the side seats. Also, my father suggested moving the coamings in-
board to provide a wider side deck and thus reduce the likelihood of swamping.
Following the war, after the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company went out of business, the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard built 12 1/2 footers on the original molds and from the Herreshoff drawings. Later this privilege was turned over to the Cape Code Shipbuilder Company. They provided the standard wood 12 1/2 footers until changing to fiberglass construction. At that time, I was commissioned to convert the design to fiberglass and make any improvements I saw fit. The same hull form and ballast was used as with the wooden boats. The cockpit and coamings were very similar to those of the Fisher's Island Class, but a raised cabin deck was provided at the forward end of the cockpit. Floatation was provided by a large built in compartment tinder the cockpit door so that, with the cockpit flooded, the boat floats on an even keel with considerable buoyancy and stability.
A. Sidney DeW. Herreshoff
May 12, 1974" (Source: Herreshoff Marine Museum Chronicle, Spring 1985, p. 3.)

"The Beverly Yacht Club, which is the leading racing organisation on Buzzards Bay, will have a new racing class next season. Herreshoff is to build for the members of that club a class of one design 12 foot knockabouts. These boats will be 12 feet on the water line and carry 750 pounds of lead. Twelve have been ordered." (Source: Anon. "Bits of Yachting News." New York Sun, December 27, 1914, p. 2.)

"... Three of the 12-foot one-designed knockabouts for the Beverly Yacht Club class have been finished by Herreshoff and two others are in frame. In all 14 boats have been ordered for this class. ..." (Source: Anon. "Yachts and Yachtsmen." Boston Daily Globe, January 17, 1915, p. 52.)

"... The work at Herreshoff's of finishing the little craft of the two one-designed classes is rapidly being brought to a close. These boats of 12 and 22 feet waterline are to be delivered to their owners by May 15 [1915]. ... [The identity of the class of 22ft LWL boats is unclear.]" (Source: Anon. "Notes from the Week's Log." Boston Globe, April 11, 1915, p. 63.)

"... The first of the 20 one-design Buzzards Bay 12-footers for the members of the Beverly Yacht Club, built by Herreshoff, was given a trial in Bristol Harbor last Wednesday. Considering the size of the little racers they are quite fast and seem to be able to point high when going to windward. ..." (Source: Anon. "Notes from the Week's Log." Boston Globe, May 23, 1915, p. 61.)

"... A number of the one-designed class of Herreshoff 12-footers built for members of the Beverly Yacht Club were towed to Buzzards Bay last week by John B. Herreshoff's yacht Eugenia. ..." (Source: Anon. "Notes From The Week's Log." Boston Globe, June 20, 1915, p. 59.)

"It's interesting to speculate on what conversations must have taken place during the conception of this, the best loved of all NGH's designs. Robert W. Emmons surely participated, for as manager of the Cup defender Resolute syndicate, Bob Emmons had spent much time at the Herreshoff shops in the winter and spring of 1913-1914. A few years before, in 1898 and 1899, he had managed the ordering and delivery of the first Buzzards Bay 15-footers. Now, perhaps, he was after a somewhat less-spirited craft that could be used in teaching young people to sail. Herreshoff Mfg. Co. drawings show 'Buzzards Bay Boys Boats' as the initial class name. (Although early boats were alternately known as 'Buzzards Bay Boys Boats' and 'Buzzards Bay 12 1/2-footers,' other names such as 'Doughdish,' 'Bullseye,' and 'Herreshoff 12' have been applied later and in other locales.) There may have been other influences as well; surely the lapstrake daysailer Katoura jr. [#742s], a davit boat of almost identical dimensions and similar layout built for Robert E. Tod's new schooner, Katoura [#722s], had something to do with this inspired design, perhaps even serving as the prototype. As with most Herreshoff boats, however, the most vital ingredient was NGH himself.
By the fall of 1914, NGH had used his 26-foot sloop Alerion [#718s] in Bermuda for a season, and, being well satisfied with her, he had adapted her half model (by the addition of a full keel and an expansion of scale) to produce the Newport 29-class racing/cruising sloops. Also in 1914, a larger and sleeker version of Alerion was created in the Buzzards Bay 25-footers. So, late in the year, when NGH modeled these 12 1/2-footers, he had considerable recent experience to draw upon. ... There were twenty boats in the first batch of 12 1/2-footers; all were built the winter of 1914-1915, and they sold for $420 each. (These early 12 1/2s were fitted with rowing thwarts, metal tiller sockets, and stretched-out coaming ogees.) The full keels drawing only 2 1/2 feet made the boats suitable for reasonably shallow water, yet easier than centerboard boats to build. The jib-and-mainsail rig, as compared, say, to a single-sail cat rig, made the boats faster for their sail area and provided young sailors with an understanding of the sloop rig that they'd need later on for their adult sailing years.
The big, open cockpits gave the 12 1/2-footers a large-boat feel and enabled several persons besides the skipper to go sailing. With the narrow side decks, swamping under a press of sail was distinctly possible, and therefore a watertight buoyancy compartment was created underneath the forward deck by means of a bulkhead just forward of the mast. (A few 12 1/2-footers were built in 1939 with wider side decks and metal buoyancy tanks under the seats; these were known as Long Island Sound Bullseyes.) The sunken afterdeck served as a seat, perching the helmsman just enough higher than the passengers (who sat on the bench seats) so that he could see ovet their heads. A small storage locker was formed under the after-deck as well.
Before 1924, all 12 1/2-footers were gaff rigged; then a Marconi option became available, and in 1935 that rig could be purchased with the new and much-promoted 'wishboom rig and sail plan,' ...
..., notice the two vertical transom stiffeners and margin pieces, necessary in these early boats to reinforce their inch-thick transoms (7/8-inch thickness, used subsequently, would make these pieces obsolete). ..." (Source: Bray, Maynard and Carlton Pinheiro. Herreshoff of Bristol. Brooklin, Maine, 1989, p. 78-80.)

"N/A"

"[Item Transcription:] Bristol, R.I.
Oct. 10, 1914
Dear Bob,
I have your interesting letter of yesterday. I was to write you yesterday but somehow missed it.
I have made a model [Model 716] for the little boats [12 1/2ft Class #744s] in which I got quite interested. But you are not 'in it' as to beam! After I got at it I decided there would be an advantage in having considerable flair to the topsides and have kept the extreme breadth at 6 feet.
The model looks very nice and I am well pleased with it, and I think you will be. I have taken more draft, however, 30in, and I don’t think it any too much. Of course it can be reduced if really necessary, but it would take away from the weatherliness of the boat.
I have made another design [Model 210] for Mr. Tod [#742s Katoura Jr], [of] much lighter displacement to be better carried on his davits.
I will get this thing sketched out in a few days. George Nichols was here Thursday talking about a class for his club. [These were precursory talks about what would become the Seawanhaka Coringthian Yacht Club's Fish Class (#788s) that was eventually built in 1916.]
John had quite a serious attack on Thursday but is much better now." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. Letter to Emmons, Robert W. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_12320. Correspondence, Folder 36, formerly 191. 1914-10-10.)
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"[Item Description:] Two penciled sailplans of two different designs (but of similar size and possibly for the same purpose). One sailplan shows what appears to be a snub-nosed and slightly smaller 12 1/2-footer with lug rig. It is marked '15ft o.a. 12ft w.l. 5ft 6in breadth. 4ft 9in breadth w.l. 2ft 4in draft. Small lug [rig] 103sqft sail area. Large lug [rig] 120sqft. Small gaff rig 106.9sqft'. Upside down is a second sailplan that shows a different design of similar size with attached keel and gaff rig (mainsail 95.5sqft, job 24.2sqft for a total of 119.7sqft. No further notes. Undated (this may well be a preliminary design of the #744s Class whose size was subsequently increased by about 1/24 to become the 12 1/2-footer whose data was recorded into NGH's design booklet on October 27, 1914)." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Penciled Sailplan. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Acc. 2004.0001.0230. WRDT04, Folder 22, formerly MRDE08. No date (before 1014-10-27 ???).)
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"[Item Description:] Penciled pantograph lead sections titled 'Lead for Nos. 744 [#744 ROBIN] & class (Buzzards Bay Boys Boats). Scale. Length 1/4 size. Breadth & depth 6/5 of 1/4 size. Nov[ember] 13 1914'. With calculations." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Pantograph Lead Sections. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE04_08130. Folder [no #]. 1914-11-13.)
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"[Item Description:] HMCo Plan 76-118. Blueprint construction plan with plan view, sections and inboard profile titled '#744 - #755 [#744s, #745s, #746s, #747s, #748s, #749s, #750s, #751s, #752s, #753s, #754s and #755s]. Buzzards Bay Boys Boats. 15ft-8in OA. 12ft-5in wl. 5ft-10in Beam. 2ft-5in Draft. ... Nov[ember] 25, 1914'. M.I.T. also has copies of this plan from the 1930s but this is the earliest version showing many differences to later boats including a thinner transom, different rudder and tiller (with jamb cleat positioned on top of it), a traveller symmetric to the centerline and different hardware patterns including different rudder hangers, different bow chocks, " (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. (creator). Blueprint. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Acc. 2004.0001.0091. WRDT08, Folder 9, formerly MRDE02. 1914-11-25.)
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"[Item Description:] Handwritten (in ink) rating rule-related table on two pages with dimensions LOA, LWL, overhang fore & aft, mean length, freeboard fore & center & aft, breadth deck & w.l., draft, cube-root (displacement), 1st mast mean length, 1st to 2nd mast, J, P1, H1, B1, G1, V1, T1, P2, P2a, H2, B2, Q2, Y2,T2, sail area, sqrt(SA), sqrt(SA - NYYC Rule) for #605s RELIANCE, #499s COLUMBIA, #725s RESOLUTE, #529s MINEOLA, #663s ISTALENA, #666s AVENGER, New York 50s (#711s, #712s, #713s, #714s, #715s, #716s, #717s, #720s, #721s), #411s GLORIANA, #685s ADVENTURESS, #617s COCK ROBIN II, #586s NELLIE, #709s JOYANT, #708s CORINTHIAN, #670s SENECA, Bar Harbor 31s (#592s, #593s, #594s, #595s, #596s, #597s, #598s, #599s, #600s, #601s, #602s, #603s, #604s), New York 30s (#626s, #627s, #628s, #629s, #630s, #631s, #632s, #633s, #635s, #636s, #637s, #638s, #639s, #640s, #642s, #643s, #647s, #648s), Newport 29s (#727s, #728s, #737s), #691s MORE JOY, #446s ALERION II, Buzzards Bay 550s (#733s, #734s, #736s, #738s, #741s), #617s COCK ROBIN II, #493s JILT, #732s SADIE, #460s KILDEE, Buzzards Bay 15s (#503s Class), Buzzards Bay 12 1/2s (#744s Class), #703s FLYING CLOUD, #669s ELEANOR, #722s KATOURA, #692s WESTWARD, #657s QUEEN, #719s VAGRANT II, #698s VAGRANT, #663s ISTALENA, and #743s HASWELL. With penciled note 'Measurements in ft & inches. Results in ft & decimals'. Undated (the youngest boat on this list is from 1914/1915 and this was probably prepared in preparation for NGH's sail area rating rule of 1914/1915)." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Handwritten Table. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE15_00100. Folder [no #]. No date (1914 / 1915 ?).)
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"[Item Description:] reports from the [HMCo] works, schooner [#827s OHONKARA] is well along with the inside finished, Stone boat [#374p ALERT] has been set up and second payment received, four of the S boats in different stages, there now being 13 in all, and the construction time taking about 13 days per boat, four of the 12-footers in different stages, have not yet begun on [#725s] Resolute's mast, as they have been delayed in getting out the stock on account of the very heavy snow, working on the club topsail yard, almost all the masts for the 20-footers [S-class] done, inventory looking up, they having found a good deal more lumber than they at first thought they had [thus improving the disastrous balance sheet], have just succeeded in getting the government to put up the boat for sale that we wanted for a tender [for RESOLUTE], are rapidly getting back our crew for RESOLUTE, many of the old men are turning up, I agree with you regarding the expense of running the plant, and the overhead, which I think Jim Swan has under estimated, and we must make up our mind to charge more on all our contract work, drafting room, store room, depreciation and expenditures for repairs of plant have been running pretty high, canvas [for RESOLUTE] not arrived yet, influenza afflicts workers, hard winter slowing down work, George Nichols was in Boston yesterday, costly VANITIE alterations, [#301p] MAGISTRATE to be readied, if we wish to get contract work out on time the bulk of the workmen must not be diverted, Sydney has made no complaint as to the machine shop, and I understand the main sheet gear [designed by him for RESOLUTE] is coming along all right, friends of mine plan to come down on the 25th of this month, Robert Saltonstall who has two of your 12-footers [#744s ROBIN and #750s JUNCO] is one of them" (Source: Emmons, Robert W. Letter to N.G. Herreshoff. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MR_26690. Subject Files, Folder 7, formerly 90-95. 1920-02-12.)
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"[Item Description:] Handwritten (in ink and pencil) comparison table giving o.a.L, l.w.l, beam, beam at waterline, beam 1/10b above waterline, draft, depth at various positions, outside lead, freeboard at stem head and other positions, displacement to LWL, frame space (2.2*(D)^1/3)^.9 and other factors (I, II, III, IV), keel thick, stem sided, transverse thick, timbers, plankfloors, lead bolts, planking, diag. straps, clamps, deckbeams, deck, belt frames, rudder stock for the following boats #744 Class (Buzzards Bay Boys Boats 1914), #788 Class (Fish Class 1916), #679 DELIGHT (1908), #699 BIBELOT (1910), #828 Class S (1920), #874 CYGNET (6 meter 1922), #718 ALERION (1912 Centreboard), #932 GAME COCK (R class 1925), #727 Class (Newport 29s COMET 1914), #892 GRAYLING (Q Class 1923), #708 CORINTHIAN (P Class 1911), #773 Class (NYYC 40s 1916), #867 VENTURA (1921 Centreboard), #711 Class (NYYC 50s 1913), #625 DORIS (1905). Undated, 1925 or later given the mention of #932 GAMECOCK. Probably 1927 in preparation for NGH's Rules for Wooden Yachts." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Handwritten Table. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE02_06960. Folder [no #]. No date (1927 ??).)
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"[Item Description:] Penciled pantograph hull sections, titled 'Fall 1914. Design for 12 foot Buzzards Bay Boys Boat [#744s Class], scale 1/10 size. Use 10in scale in laying down, w.l. = 14ft 91/2in x 10/10 = 12ft 4in'. With displacement calculations comparing scale 1/12 [Fish Class] (42.5cuft = 2720lbs) and scale 1/10 [12 1/2ft Class] (24.6cuft = 1575lbs). With two displacement curves, one solid, the other dashed and annotated 'study model July 19 1928' [a reference to Model 204 made that day] suggesting that despite the 'Fall 1914' title these sections were taken off Model 716 for the 12 1/2 foot class in July 1928 in preparation for NGH's design of #1133s FANO which was built the following year. (Note, that of course it could also have been the other way round: The sections being the original ones from 1914 and the displacement curve from 1928 simply having been added to it.) On verso of 'Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. Builders of Steam Yachts, Torpedo Boats, Launches, High Speed Marine Engines and Tubulous Boilers' stationery." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Pantograph Hull Sections. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE04_00590. Folder [no #]. 1928-07-19 ?.)
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"[Item Description:] Penciled table showing LOA, LWL, Beam, Draft, QBL, Stem, [symbol], sft[?] and Displ[acement] for KATOURA [#722s], WESTWARD [#692s], VAGRANT, QUEEN MAB [#698s], CONSTITUTION [#551s], RESOLUTE [#725s], WINSOME [#664s], 2nd IROLITA [#658s], DORIS [#625s], AVENGER [#666s], 50 Footers [#711s], ADVENTURESS [#685s], IROLITA [#591s], FLYING CLOUD [#703s], BELISARIUS [#1266s], NEITH [#665s], AZOR [#578s], NAULAKHA [#687s], SENECA [#670s], NY30s [#626s], SENTA [#688s], DOROTHY Q [#668s], FLIGHT [#607s], PLEASURE [#907s], QUAKERESS [#676s], KILDEE [#460s], and the 12 1/2ft Class [#744s]. With formulas for mean length L, Draft limit by rule and freeboard at three positions. Undated, on verso of NYYC invitation dated December 11, 1933 but listing of BELISARIUS which was built in 1934/1935 indicates that this was written at that time or later. Filed close to and possibly related to what appears to be an early version of NGH's 'Observations on the Proportions of Sailing Yachts' from July 1936." (Source: Herreshoff, N.G. (creator). Tabulated Dimensions. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum Item MRDE02_03040. Folder [no #]. No date (1936-07 ?).)
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"[Item Description:] Offset booklets for FI-23 #1212s class, #742s KATOURA Jr., Fish Class #788s, Bulls Eye #744s Class, #1225s CRUSADER. (RESTRICTED ACCESS - see curator)." (Source: MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.147. Documents. Box HAFH.6.5B, Folder Cape Cod Shipbuilding. No date.)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #744s Robin even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Bray, Maynard. "Restoration of 12 1/2 Footers. Part I." Wooden Boat #56, January/February 1984, p. 93-101. (1,293 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. Copyright holder: Maynard Bray (text). Detailed Buzzards Bay 12 1/2 restoration step by step as performed by the Ballentine shop. Part I. Stem restoration, transom and frame replacement.
• Bray, Maynard. "Restoration of 12 1/2 Footers. Part II." Wooden Boat #57, March/April 1984, p. 93-100. (1,036 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. Copyright holder: Maynard Bray (text). Detailed Buzzards Bay 12 1/2 restoration step by step as performed by the Ballentine shop. Part II. Keel timber and coamings replacement.
• Bray, Maynard (with photos by Benjamin Mendlowitz). "12 1/2 Footers." Nautical Quarterly, no. 37, Spring 1987, p. 47. (608 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. Copyright holder: Maynard Bray (text), Benjamin Mendlowitz (photos). Short class portrait. Part of the larger article "Herreshoff Legacies."
• Nagy, Steve. "The Herreshoff 12 1/2 Footer. Evolution Of The Class." In: Herreshoff Marine Museum (publ.). Proceedings. The 6th Classic Yacht Symposium. May 2-3, 2014. Bristol, RI, 2014, p. 1-23. (4,425 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Copyright holder: Steve Nagy / Herreshoff Marine Museum. Short class history of the 12 1/2 as built by HMCo, Quincy Adams, Cape Cod Shipbuilding and others. Different models: Gaff, marconi, wishboom, Fishers Island. Detailed description of changes in configuration and equipment as boats were built over time. Identification guide for 12 1/2s missing their builder's plate. Photos. Original promotional material.

• Robin (HMCo-made index card)
• Robin (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: Robin
Type: J & M
Length: 12'3"
Owner: Duncan, S.

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

• Robin
• 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: Robin
Type: 12' 2" J & M
Owner: S. Duncan
Row No.: 575

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: 30
Year: 1914
E/P/S: S
No.: 0744
Name: Robin
OA: 15' 6"
LW: 12' 3"
B: 5' 10"
D: 2' 5"
Rig: J & M
K: y
Ballast: Lead O.
Amount: $420.00
Notes Constr. Record: Buzards Bay Class
Last Name: Duncan
First Name: Stuart

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.

Hull No.: 744
Contract Date: 1914-11-14
Org. Name: Robin
Org. Owner: Stuart Duncan
Org. Rig: J&M

Source: Nagy, Steve. "The Herreshoff 12 1/2 Footer Registry." Version 2.0. August 2007. (http://h12.orrsford.com/H12_Registry_Ver_2-0.pdf, last visit May 23, 2008.)

"The first 20 12 1/2-footers (#744s to 765s) were built with thinner masts than subsequently built boats (#768s and following) as per a note and changed dimensions on spar plan 081-111 (HH.5.06203) 'Spars for #744 and Class (11 Boats)'. The early boats had a mast diameter of 2 7/8in at the top of the deck and 2 3/4in at the gaff jaws. This compares to 3 3/8in and 2 13/16in, respectively, for the later boats." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. October 30, 2020.)

"Built in 196 days (contract to launch; equivalent to $2/day, 8 lbs displacement/day)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 16, 2024.)

"Sail area approximately 140 square feet by rule." (Source: Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. Yachts by Herreshoff. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company: Designers and Builders of Sailing and Power Craft since 1861. Bristol, Rhode Island, 1937.)

"Displacement to waterline 24.6 cuft. = 1575 lbs." (Source: Herreshoff, N. G. [Design notes.] October 27, 1914.)

"Displacement 24.6 cu.ft. [= 1575 lbs] from untitled two-page rating-rule-related table handwritten (in ink) by N. G. Herreshoff with multiple dimensions for the most important Herreshoff-designed yachts. Halsey C. Herreshoff Collection at the Herreshoff Marine Museum. MRDE15, Folder [no #]. Undated (the most recent boat dates 1914/1915 and the table was probably prepared in preparation for NGH's sail area rating rule of 1914/1915)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. September 16, 2020.)

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