HMCo #1020s Vanessa

"... in some ways the most interesting product of 1919 was the one-design class of 'S' boats, which came out early that spring.
While there were few of them built the first year, perhaps twenty, the company continued building them off and on for the next eight or nine years so that eventually there were perhaps a hundred and fifty or more of them, and besides being good little cruisers they have furnished active racing up to the present time in widely separated districts. If I remember right these little yachts cost less than two thousand dollars the first few years, so they have been a good investment for some owners for they were built well enough to last for years if handled carefully. Perhaps the 'S' boats would even have been more popular if they had been a little better looking but that defect should not be wholly blamed on Captain Nat for it was the request of the original sponsors of the class that they have short overhangs and full bows and sterns. This feature has made them rather queer-looking Universal Rule boats, and consequently they are not particularly fast for their rating. But there have been few all-around better boats for afternoon sailing, cruising, and racing, and perhaps also the last one-design class that was somewhat comfortable." (Source: Herreshoff, L. Francis. The Wizard of Bristol. The Life and Achievements of Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, together with An Account of Some of the Yachts he Designed. New York, 1953, p. 306.)

"S CLASS
1979 is the 60th anniversary of the conception of the Herreshoff S class. A commemorative race and celebration will be held in August sponsored by the Museum and the Narragansett Bay Herreshoff S class. Still the most significant one design racing class of the Bay, the S boats are acknowledged by their sailors as having elegant sailing characteristics in heavy or light weather.
A group from the Seawanaka Corinthian Yacht Club of Oyster Bay, N.Y. with Paul Hammond as spokesman approached Nathanael Herreshoff in the Fall of 1919 to request a class of boats to win in the open S class. Captain Nat carved the S boat half model in November 1919 and completed the design soon after. The first seven orders were accepted by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in December, and about fifteen boats were completed and delivered for the 1920 season.
28 feet over all, with moderate displacement, a high ballast ratio and large rig with a conspicuous curved mast, the Herreshoff S boat swept the open S class so that soon the term S became synonomous with the Herreshoff S boats. Racing classes in Maine, Marblehead, Rhode Island, Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake provided their sailors the very best of close one design competition. The shop built S boats until the start of World War II and they have turned up in many harbors including Honolulu, Hawaii.
Quite appropriately, Narragansett Bay is now the scene of the best S boat racing. This is because Alden Walls and his beautiful S NINA started off right after the War and influenced Russell Boss and many of his other friends to get S boats and race.
By 1960 there were 25 active boats with more than 20 on the starting line on numerous occasions. Many of the most active of our Bay sailors learned much about racing and gained great enjoyment in the S boats and today treasure S boat racing memories. Museum trustee Ike Merriman's father won the Bristol Yacht Club Regatta in the S class in 1930, Alden Wall's NINA in 1947 and my own COQUINA won in 1963.
Lightly constructed of cedar planking over steam bent oak frames with bronze strapped keels, the Herreshoff S boats seem to survive any number of competitive races in our summer sou'westers. This year's 60th anniversary is a significant event for the S boats, but we all expect them to keep racing for many years to come." (Source: Herreshoff, Halsey C. "S Class" In: Herreshoff Marine Museum Chonicle, Spring 1979, p. 2.)

"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 [#1058s Prestige], 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. ... I. B. Merriman sold his S boat Vanessa to Everardus Bogardus who sailed the Star Hoku here in 1927, and she was sailed to New York and loaded aboard a steamer bound for Honolulu, the seventh S to be sent there. ..." (Source: Davis, Jeff. Yachting in Narragansett Bay. Providence, 1946, p. 50.)

"In 1930, this boat was sailed to New York and then sent to Hawaii via steamer. There are lots of great stories about this boat, including one were Duke Kahanamoku once picked up a giant manta ray that had jumped on deck while they were sailing and tossed it back into the ocean. She was sold to Humphrey in 1956 and was hauled out for three months for repairs. After going back into the water, she underwent a 40 minute sea trial. The next evening, two men stole the boat from Ala wai harbor and wrecked her on the reef 50 yards offshore of ala moana beach. The Coast Guard recovered the builder's plate and some hardware that are still held by the Thacker family. The keel still remains on the reef in unknown condition. [Note that Lloyd's Register continued to list this boat into the 1970s.]" (Source: Nagy, Steve. "The Herreshoff Registry." http://www.herreshoffregistry.org/detail.php?hull=1020, retrieved February 26, 2014.)

• Benfield, James W. "Reviving the 'S' Class." Yachting, May 1945, p. 56-57, 104. (3,516 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. How the Western Long Island Sound S-class fleet was built with a deliberate strategy.
• Upham, Kenneth B. History and Register of the S-Boat. Privately printed, no place, 1994. (13,553 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. The definitive source of info on the S-class, but unfortunately current only up to its date of publication in 1994. History of the class and its various fleets, technical comments, detailed vessel-by-vessel provenance, owner and name indices.
• Bray, Maynard and Claas van der Linde. "The Origins of the S-Boat. A Remarkable Herreshoff One-Design." Wooden Boat #267, March/April 2019, p. 74-79. (1,201 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. A short history of how the S-Class came about, including new insights from recent research of original Herreshoff documents. With photos and reproductions of the original construction and sail plans.
• Silken, Alan (text). Silken, Cory (photos). "Setting Sail in America. The Remarkable Story of Herreshoff S Class Sailboats." Seapoint Books, Brooklin, ME.
  Appreciation of the S-Class, history of the design and local fleets, portraits of surviving S-boats and a catalogue of all S-boats
• Silken, Alan (text). Silken, Cory (photos). "A Century of S-Boats. The Enduring Appeal of a Classic Herreshoff One-Design." Wooden Boat #267, March/April 2019, p. 80-85. (1,510 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes. Appreciation of the S-Class and a history of the fleets in Narragansett Bay, Quisset and Long Island and a summary of the leading S-boat restorers.
• van der Linde, Claas. [No title. Note about S-Class Weight Discrepancies.] March 11, 2022. (11 kB)
  Document is copyrighted: Yes, used with permission. Copyright holder: Claas van der Linde. Note about discrepancies in published and unpublished sources of displacement of S-class boats and why 6030lbs is currently assumed to be the correct weight.

• Vanessa (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: Vanessa
Type: J & M S
Length: 20'6"
Owner: Merriman, I. B.

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

• Vanessa
• Panini ex-Vanessa
• 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.

Month: Sep
Day: 30
Year: 1926
E/P/S: S
No.: 1020
Name: Vanessa
OA: 27' 6"
LW: 20' 6"
B: 7' 0"
D: 4' 9"
Rig: J & M
K: y
Amount: 4200.00
Notes Constr. Record: "S" Class Sail Boat. (Teak Fin>). Insured Aug 11/26. 996 Class #7.
Last Name: Merriman
First Name: I. B.

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.

"1930 Sailed to New York. Loaded on steamer for Hawai." (Source: Upham, Kenneth. History and Register of the S Boat. Privately printed, no place, 1994.)

"Sail numbers 1? and 7." (Source: Upham, Kenneth B. History and Register of the S-Boat. No place, 1994, p. 86.)

"As per the Construction Record the contract for this boat was recorded on September 30, 1926 and it was delivered on May 11, 1927. Note, however, that the Construction Record also shows that it had been insured already from August 11, 1926 on. HMCo usually insured boats when construction began and we may thus assume that the day when the boat was insured was very close to when it was set up, i.e. when construction began. Other boats from this 996 class are believed to have been inspected after finishing by R. F. Haffenreffer on October 2, 1926 which may suggest that Vanessa had also been finished by this time." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. September 24, 2019.)

"Sail area approximately 425 square feet, measured." (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.)

"See note about about weight discrepancies in published and unpublished sources under 'Further Reading' heading." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. March 11, 2022.)

"Final disposition info from Steve Nagy's Herreshoff Registry." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. February 26, 2014.)

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