HMCo #999s Paddy

"... The Newport 29 Class boats are scaled up by the proportion 4/3 from the ALERION [#718s] size. Since that long ago time, there has been speculation as to whether Npt. 29s are ALERIONS or SADIES [#732s]. Both aficionados and builders of copies and sailors have adamantly stated one way or the other; none of them are entirely correct. Notes in pencil on the back of my original ALERION design model and reference to Captain Nat’s design notes solve the riddle (with thanks to John Palmieri). The actual fact is that Capt. Nat did apply the scale of 16in. to the foot for the #727 Class instead of 12in. to the foot, making the Newport 29 boats 4/3 larger than the original ALERION III underbody. He again altered the ALERION lines by bow extension, more forward flair, plus greater on-deck beam amidships and aft. His design notes reveal that these changes were along the lines of the thinking for the earlier SADIE changes but not necessarily scaled exactly the same as for SADIE. Of course, the geometry of the original keel-centerboard boats was modified to a deeper full keel without centerboard and with completely outside low ballast. Also Capt. Nat shortened the stern overhangs of the four Newport 29 boats. It is unclear why he did that, but the result seems not to have harmed the dynamic racing successes of those boats. ..." (Source: Herreshoff, Halsey C. "The 2014 CYS Commemorates the Great Herreshoff year of 1914." In: Herreshoff Marine Museum (publ.). Proceedings. The 6th Classic Yacht Symposium. May 2- 3, 2014. Bristol, RI, 2014, p. 5.)

"The firm [HMCo] has one of the Newport 20-foot sloops [#999s Paddy] framed and planked nearly ready for the dead wood and keel to be bolted on. The boat is a mate to I. B Merriman's Comet [#737s] and until she is ready to be delivered, the owner has requested that his name be left out of the picture." (Source: Davis, Jeff. "Yachting Gossip." Providence Journal, April 25, 1926, p. ?.)

"Many yachts are being laid up at the Herreshoff Company's yards at Walker's Cove. ... In the yards near the junction of Hope street and Ferry road, are Commodore Clark's 50-foot power tender Zipalong, Nathaniel M. Ayer's power cruiser Lynx IV., the Magistrate [#301p], the Wilson boys' R boat Fordik and Vanderbilt's sloop Paddy [#999s] from Newport. ..." (Source: Anon. "Many Yachts Being Laid Up For Winter. Herreshoff Company and S. C. Wardwell Busy Storing Boats At the Yards in This Town." Bristol Phoenix, October 5, 1928, p. 1.)

"1927. ... The Spring was a busy season with the builders and there was considerable buying and selling. Herreshoff's was building a mast for the big cutter Katoura [#1050s], said to be the tallest ever made at the plant. ...
In different stages of construction were a Newport 29 for William H. Vanderbilt [#999s Paddy], another R boat for Junius Morgan [#1053s Puffin], an S for I. B. Merriman [#1020s Vanessa], a 41-foot cutter for Elihu Root [#1057s Ti Navire], a 54-foot sloop for a New York yachtsman, two of the Fisher's Island 31's [apparently #1054s Cyrilla IV and #1055s Judy] and the usual flock of 12 1/2-foot Bullseyes. ..." (Source: Davis, Jeff. Yachting in Narragansett Bay. Providence, 1946, p. 35.)

"1930. ... William H. Vanderbilt sold the Newport 29 class sloop Paddy to a Boston yachtsman. ..." (Source: Davis, Jeff. Yachting in Narragansett Bay. Providence, 1946, p. 49.)

"The Newport 29-footers have occasionally been hailed as the best all-around design ever created by NGH or any other designer; certainly it is one of the most beautiful. Their reputation for speed comes largely from the hundreds of races won by Dolphin [#727s], the first boat of the class, and a boat that seems even today to be unbeatable in any kind of competition; she has proven herself a winner over the many decades she's been campaigned by the Lockwood family. Although Mischief [#728s] has not sailed as many races, she too has proven to be a formidable competitor. As of this writing, both Dolphin and Mischief still sail and have long carried Marconi rigs.
Comet [#737s] was the third boat of this class that was built for the 1914 sailing season, and she was stretched out aft about 7 inches for a less abrupt ending at the transom. (Comet was lost in the hurricane of 1938.) The Herreshoff Mfg. Co. built a fourth Newport 29-footer in 1926, Paddy [#999s], also with the added length of Comet; as of this writing, she is still going strong in Cape Cod waters as Tiana.
The Newport 29s stand out as cruisers and daysailers as well as racers. They are just big enough for four berths, a galley, and an enclosed toilet room. Under the self-bailing cockpit there is space for an auxiliary engine. The rig is small enough to be easily handled, and the hulls are seakindly and of moderate draft --- a far cry indeed from the Herreshoff Mfg. Co. one-designs of 1897 with nearly the same name. Those boats, the Newport 30s ..., were low-sided, high-strung fin-keelers that were strictly for 'round-the-buoy racing.
One might think that NGH worked especially hard to create such an outstanding design as the Newport 29-footers, but that was apparently not the case at all. He simply used the half model he'd made for the building of his own Alerion and changed its scale so the new design would be about a third larger than the old, then added a deeper ballast keel for sufficient lateral plane without a centerboard. (He also worked minor alterations in bow profile and beam that were incorporated into Alerion's near-sister Sadie [#732s].) One can't help speculating how many more of these magnificent designs NGH would have come up with had he lived into the family racer/ cruiser era of the last half-century, and been able to concentrate on that type." (Source: Bray, Maynard and Carlton Pinheiro. Herreshoff of Bristol. Brooklin, Maine, 1989, p. 82.)

"[Item Description:] Spreadsheet listing original contracts (from 1923 to 1940) by HMCo in the collection of HMM (apparently from the gift of Everett Pearson). Listed boats are: #380p, #381p, #388p, #389p, #391p, #392p, #393p, #395p, #886s, #933s, #934s, #954s, #955s, #962s, #983s, #999s, #1002s, #1017s, #1054s, #1055s, #1057s, #1074s, #1078s, #1122s, #1125s, #1130s, #1131s, #1147s, #1152s, #1153s, #1154s, #1156s, #1157s, #1164s, #1170s, #1173s, #1174s, #1175s, #1175s, #1176s, #1177s, #1179s, #1180s, #1191s, #1192s, #1193s, #1195s, #1196s, #1198s, #1199s, #1200s, #1201s, #1202s, #1203s, #1206s, #1207s, #1208s, #1209s, #1210s, #1211s, #1212s, #1213s, #1214s, #1215s, #1216s, #1217s, #1218s, #1219s, #1220s, #1222s, #1224s, #1236s, #1226s, #1227s, #1228s, #1230s, #1232s, #1234s, #1237s, #1238s, #1240s, #1241s, #1243s, #1244s, #1245s, #1246s, #1247s, #1248s, #1249s, #1250s, #1251s, #1252s, #1253s, #1254s, #1255s, #1256s, #1257s, #1258s, #1259s, #1260s, #1261s, #1262s, #1263s, #1264s, #1265s, #1274s, #1275s, #1277s, #1279s, #1280s, #1281s, #1282s, #1283s, #1284s, #1285s, #1286s, #1287s, #1302s, #1303s, #1315s, #1508s." (Source: Rickson, Norene (creator). Table. Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection Item LIB_4220. HMM Library Rare Books Room (HMCo Contracts), Folder [no #]. No date (2010s ?).)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #999s Paddy even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

• Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. [Contract for #999s Paddy, Newport 29.] Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection. Bristol, RI, March, 1926. (1,389 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Copyright holder: Herreshoff Marine Museum. Original building/sales contract. Vessel description, scantlings, payment terms, delivery date.

• Paddy (MIT Museum-made index card)
• Paddy (MIT Museum-made index card)
• Paddy (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: Paddy
Type: J & M
Length: 29'
Owner: Vanderbilt, W. H.

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

• Paddy
• 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: Paddy
Type: 29' 3" sloop
Owner: Wm. K. Vanderbilt
Year: 1925
Row No.: 502

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: Mar.
Year: 1926
E/P/S: S
No.: 0999
Name: Paddy
OA: 36' 0"
LW: 29' 0"
B: 10' 4"
D: 5' 0"
Rig: Marconi
Amount: 12,000.00
Notes Constr. Record: Newport 29-Footer
Last Name: Vanderbilt
First Name: W. 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.

"Provenance:
Owner; Years; Location; Boat Name
William H. Vanderbilt; 1925 - 1929; Newport, RI; Paddy
Gordon Prince; 1930 - 1933; Newport, RI; Paddy
Charles Guidon; 1934 - 1935; New York, NY; Paddy
John Lee Merrill; 1936 - 1938; Ilesford, ME; Paddy
Leo A. Dion; 1939 - 1940; Salem, MA; Paddy
Edward W. Nichols; 1941 - 1955; Essex, CT; Teaser
George Byers; 1956 - 1973; Northport Harbor, NY; Teaser
Frederick Hard; 1973 - 1992; New York, NY; Tiana
Ben Baker; 1992 - ; New Bedford, MA; Teaser" (Source: Nagy, Steve. Herreshoff Registry. http://www.herreshoffregistry.org/detail.php?hull=999, retrieved February 10, 2011.)

"#737s Comet and #999s Paddy were built for Cornelius Vanderbilt III and his nephew William H. Vanderbilt. Paddy was named after her owner W. H. Vanderbilt's daughter Emily 'Paddy' Vanderbilt which was born on May 12, 1925 in New York. However, the couple's marriage was troubled and Vanderbilt's wife sued for divorce in Paris in the summer of 1926, then reconciled, but sued again for divorce in Newport, Rhode Island which was granted in June 1928 (as per information from Wikipedia)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. April 15, 2014.)

"Dimensions from HH.5.05590 (076-152) Construction Plan Newport 29' Cruising Class (1926-04-26). #737s Comet and #999s Paddy were 14" longer than #727s Dolphin and #728s Mischief as measured on construction plan." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. April 15, 2014.)

"Date of delivery 'June 24/26. Received the above boat and equipment except cockpit cushions in good order. [signed] William H. Vanderbilt' from original contract in collection of Herreshoff Marine Museum. The contract had specified the delivery date as June 25th, 1926." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 15, 2015.)

"Displacement 17,000lbs from 2007 WoodenBoat Register." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. March 17, 2015.)

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