The fiberglass-hulled Marlin design came about in the late 1950s when Cape Cod Shipbuilding asked Sidney Herreshoff to modify his father’s Fish class design for fiberglass construction and at the same time give her an aluminum-sparred masthead rig and a counter stern with inboard rudder. Rounded trunk cabins were part of the deal and came in two sizes, one for cruising and another, smaller one that allowed a larger cockpit for daysailing.
Entranced by the Marlin’s size and shape after considering a number of others, OCH member Jim Sargent found and bought one, and over the course of four years deepened her cockpit for comfort and revised her trunk cabin for appearance. At first glance, you’d be convinced she’s all wood—perhaps a genuine Fish Boat or one of the Alerion replicas. But she’s one-of-a-kind; a real head turner! Jim shared photos of the project, so here’s how things went:
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James Winthrop Sargent says:
BTW, For more about Marlins and their owners checkout the Herreshoff Marlin Owners Facebook group page. And please join!!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/331345831882633
Best, Jim
Joseph Wl Haley III says:
Sorry to say none of the boats Jame Sargent showed me on site are anything like the fish Class we sailed in the Gulf. I know the SRQ yacht Club had a small fleet in the 40’s. I left for Service in 61 and they still had them. A low free board,solid deck,, with unstayed heavy mast, gaft rig,fix keel, (not a good design for our shallow bays). There were fleets up and down the Florida west coast, and we raced them for a Lipton Cup off Biloxi.Miss before my time as a 10-12 yr old fordeckman.(Jib).. I have a pic, but don’t see how to send it.here.
David Tew says:
Another ‘enhanced Marlin’ for sale here: https://www.yachtworld.com/yacht/1962-herreshoff-marlin-6995427/
John "Jack" Detweiler says:
Beautiful restoration of your Marlin. We have one of them at Eastport Yacht Club in Annapolis that sailed some of the Friday Night Beer Can Races last summer. It is not as pretty as yours.
I saw the comment from the owner of the Sea Sprite 23. I bought one of those is 1982 that was located in Rhode Island and had it trucked to Ocean City, NJ. I had decided to start to race sailboats and this boat was my first attempt. We were so slow that in the first race, the race committee had already left when we got to the area of the finish line. It was a pretty boat, but I got a J/24 the following year.
James Winthrop Sargent says:
Hey Jack. Mystic is at EYC 4-5 slips out from the one you mention. I might be encouraged to get out there on Friday eves!!
Lou Kimball says:
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Lou Kimball says:
Hi James.
With your cockpit modifications, she’s looking an awful lot like my 1967 Alberg designed Sea Sprite 23! My day sailor has the full bilge and teak floor boards just like you put in. She was modified a bit by the previous owner to have a self tending jib and I gotta say I’m very happy with it. No more roller furling Jenny for me! Your work has encouraged me to go ahead with a cabin modification. I’ll be moving the bulkhead forward about 18″ to give more room in the cockpit, sincere only use her for day sailing, often with 4 extra passengers.
James Winthrop Sargent says:
Love the Sea Sprite. Couldn’t see the picture you pasted I don’t thing this site allows images in comments. Where are you located??
Lou Kimball says:
Hi James, I am in Harpswell, Me. on Middle Bay. Sailed and raced Ensigns for years, love Alberg’s designs. Had a Commander when I thought I was going to do some cruising but down sized to the Sea Sprite when we ended up not cruising much. I also have gone electric, using a Torpedo 1003C, which powers the boat quite nicely. The Sea Sprite has a motor well, but I don’t leave the motor in there, since we sail on and off the mooring. I have a second 1003C for the dinghy and I take the battery off as a spare on the Sea Sprite if we go any real distance. My email is [email protected] if you’d like to correspond. They way I could snd you pictures.
Ed Hebert says:
I’d be curious to learn more about how you adapted Sketchup to the boatbuilding workflow. My experience with it has been, “great for straight lines, compound curves…not so much!”
James Winthrop Sargent says:
It is a bit tricky and I must admit I was only able to approximate her lines. As far as I know, her lines aren’t available. The Marlin was a redesign of the Fish Class for Cape Cod Shipbuilding to build out of fiberglass with a Marconi rig. The original Fish was made from the half-model as the 12-1/2, whose lines were drawn up (I believe by Maynard Bray, who wrote this post) and are available online. I scanned them in, approximated curves to them and scaled the curves up to the Fish size I then modified them for the extended counter stern and came up with a workable 3D model. Happy to share!
Ed Hebert says:
Thanks for the detailed explanation on your workflow for the 3D model! I’ve been using Autodesk Fusion 360 lately, but I did some cool stuff with Sketchup in the past. I designed a small post and beam outbuilding for my yard, and a couple of furniture projects. I admit I’m not building much lately, but enjoy living vicariously through people like you.
If you want to swap notes, feel free to email me at hebert01 @ gmail dot com
James Winthrop Sargent says:
Did you build the Cradle Boat? If so, did you live in Mattapoissett at one time???
Ed Hebert says:
Hi James- Yes, and yes! I still live in Mattapoisett now.
Did you build a cradle boat as well?
James Winthrop Sargent says:
My brother lives in Mattapoissett and is a member of Mattapoissett Yacht Club, And no I haven’t built a cradle boat, but they are very cool!!
Andy Bullock says:
What are the dimensions of the boat?
James Winthrop Sargent says:
LOA: 23.00 ft (7.01 m)
LWL:16.92 ft (5.16 m)
Beam: 7.18 ft (2.19 m)
For more see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlin_23
Peter Strock says:
Jim
1965 – my first boat a Fish Sloop?/Marlin. After modification to deep cockpit and move bulkhead forward one station single handed cruising from NW corner Narragansett Bay to Nantuckett. She is still on a mooring at Woods Hole. My idea was to put below a bench with a folding back athwartships. Storage under a sleep platform which the back made when folded down. with a “sumptuous seat” a la Edey and Duff Stone Horse to starboard and a small counter top opposite.. Cedar bucket for necessary. All a la L. Francis H. but impossible now with current regs for Off loading or ‘shifting cargo’ as we called it then.
NGH and L.Francis left such an elegant and intelligent standard for how a boat should feel and respond and look that I am hard pressed to want anything else, and indeed went from the Fish to an Alerion {Rummery] to an H_12 1/2 [Edey and Duff] Oh yeah, a brief interlude with a Concordia 44. To damn much maintenance. But a love to sail. And probably would have been designed by NGH if he had lived long enough.
Thanks for the excuse to remember
And be reminded that less is more. My very modern grandchildren love the H12 1/2 They are excited by a 420 yet appreciate the H12.
James Winthrop Sargent says:
We are birds of a feather!!! Woods Hole( worked there). Fish (good friend rebuilt one in WH 10 or so years ago). Concordia (partnered in rebuilding one at Parkers in the 80’s; love Ray Hunt; BTW Concordia 44′ or Concordia #44?). Cedar Bucket (made one of left over western red cedar, gleefully removed all through hulls of my Marlin; and make familiarity with it is a prerequisite for anyone going for a sail!)
DICK HORAN says:
Beautifully done.
Is she fitted with any auxiliary power for those days when the wind disappears?
James Winthrop Sargent says:
Long story! I’ve been trying to adapt a simple electric motor to move Herreshoffs for years. Finally came up with a simple carbon fiber side mount for a modified $99 Minnkota trolling motor. I mounted a bigger one directly on the sternpost of the Marlin (see the “on the way pick above) but it failed. Now back to a modified side mount for a ePropulsion Spirit.
Would love to discuss more about this!!
charles flanagan says:
Had the same problem years ago with a Winter Harbor 21. Mounted an 8″ square plate on the side deck just forward of the cockpit end to which I could bolt a stainless weldment to mount an outboard motor when we needed to. Used it going through the Cape Cod Canal bringing the boat from Maine to Narragansett Bay and often getting around to regattas. Back then it was a 5hp gasoline outboard but today would probably use a Torqeedo.
James Winthrop Sargent says:
As a kid I sailed with my father out ofYoungstown yacht club on the other end of lake
Ontario
James Winthrop Sargent says:
This was meant as a reply to Burton Blais’s Nov 12 comment
David Tew says:
Easily one of the best efforts of this type. Elegant!
James Winthrop Sargent says:
Thanks David! It sure was fun! AND a LOT of work!!!!
Edwin Sargent says:
Four years went into this project, yes. But, as a moral support and sounding board I can attest that virtually every one of those 1460 days went into this project. For each phase an extensive design and evaluation was employed using 3d modeling. Comparing the intended design on the lines taken off the Marlin against well-known classics: the original Nat Herreshoff Fish Class and Alerion and the more recent Bridges Point 24 by Joel White and the Marlin Heritage by Cape Cod Shipbuilding.
But if design was an iterative process, it paled in comparison to the number of successive iterations in the construction process. Mock up after mock up; one dry run installation after another. Learning the process and adjusting the outcome until enough confidence was gained that the end product would have the desired result: that it would look right, feel right and work right. Only then would it be worthy of this project of his dreams; to create a comfortable fiberglass daysailer with the looks and performance of an original Herreshoff design.
James Winthrop Sargent says:
Thanks Ed. You were a huge part of it as you have been with all my sailing adventures and boat rehab! Will you ever forget the Concordia that you, Bob, and I did?????
Joseph Wl Haley III says:
I lived on the Cape (Santuit) for 5 years and never saw what you call a ‘Fish Class’. I owned an O’Day Marine, and sailed her out of Cotuit Harbor.. I am a Sarasota Fl. native and in my youth, sailed ‘what I know as a ‘Fish Class’ out of the SRQ Yacht Club. They were Cypress hull, gaff headed sloops of 21′ with and open cockpit. Is this anything like what you call a ‘Fish Class’ ???
Joseph Wl Haley III says:
We also have a boat-building family by the surname of ‘White’ on the Florida/ Georgia Border just north of Tallahassee and their current son builder in JOEL WHITE. I think he is 3rd generation. Any connection to the one mentioned in above material ???
Stanley Grayson says:
See http://www.classicboatshop.com to learn about the Fish Class including an article that originally appeared in WoodenBoat.
James Winthrop Sargent says:
Hey Joe, They were probably Fish. And you totally got me on the cypress! I was about to say that I believe they were made of Atlantic white cedar, which they were. But until I poked around a bit, I didn’t know they were in the cypress family, So you are quite right!!
Fish are quite rare now, especially the original Herreshoff ones. Cape Cod Shipbuilding has made fiberglass version called the Marlin since the late 50’s, I believe. If you use Facebook, you might be interested in the Marlin Owners Group Page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/331345831882633
BTW are you still on the Cape?
Joseph Wl Haley III says:
James
I have a pic of our Gulf gaf riged sloops. Nw way to to post it here.
Joseph Wl Haley III says:
PS Left Cape Con in 1981, after the airline I flew for (Air New England) shut down, and ,moved back home to Florida.
James Winthrop Sargent says:
Hey Joe, They were probably Fish. And you totally got me on the cypress! I was about to say that I believe they were made of Atlantic white cedar, which they were. But until I poked around a bit, I didn’t know they were in the cypress family, So you are quite right!!
Fish are quite rare now, especially the original Herreshoff ones. Cape Cod Shipbuilding has made fiberglass version called the Marlin since the late 50’s, I believe. If you use Facebook, you might be interested in the Marlin Owners Group Page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/331345831882633
BTW are you still on the Cape?
John Swansey says:
Beautiful. The simple, elegant aesthetic effect of the single curved plane of the forward raked cabin trunk flowing aft to terminate in the coaming can’t be beat. It may be sacrilege here, but I prefer “frozen snot” for the hulls of my classic boats, due to the low maintenance and relative immortality. A build like this represents the best of both worlds. I’m considering a laminated “phony” wood transom for my Rhodes-designed sloop just as this owner has done.
John Swansey says:
Would love to see a video of this – hear from the owner/builder and see her under way, with some details. This kind of project is within reach of a lot of classic boat fans and is an inspiration. This is the type of project I would attempt. A full-size cold-molded or plank-on frame project is too daunting for me in my current circumstances..
James Winthrop Sargent says:
Thanks John. We see things similarly! Wher eare you located and what boat were you thinking of taking on?
Burton Blais says:
I love these kinds of projects. Very nice result!
James Winthrop Sargent says:
Thanks Burton.. Where do you hail from???
Burton Blais says:
I’m up in Ottawa, Canada. Most of my sailing is on the Ottawa River, Thousand Islands and Eastern Lake Ontario region.