Fine Boat Designs – The Herreshoff Fish Class

I‘m sure that N.G Herreshoff (NGH) realized he’d created something pretty special when he finished carving this half model in 1914, for it was quite unlike any he’d carved before and supremely beautiful as well. From it, the Herreshoff Mfg. Co. built around 40 Fish class sloops at 20’9″ in overall length and nearly ten times that number of the better-known 12-1/2 footers.

H.G. Herreshoff half model that provided offsets for both the Fish boats and the smaller 12-1/2 footers. (courtesy Claas van der Linde) — N.G. Herreshoff half model that provided offsets for both the Fish boats and the smaller 12-1/2 footers. (courtesy Claas van der Linde)

NGH lived to see this design flourish, but he didn’t live to know of its longevity. Now, a century later, about half the Fish boats and two thirds of the 12-1/2s still survive—and replicas, variations, and derivatives are still being turned out in significant numbers.

Fish boats are a bigger version of these 12-1/2 footers.

A good design, one that’s versatile, practical, sea kindly, safe, and above all, beautiful, endures long after styles and fashions have come and gone. This is a shining example.

PERCH, the Fish boat that arrived in Center Harbor last year and got us to dreaming.

So taken with the Fish boat are we at OCH, thanks largely to PERCH having rekindled our memories, that we dream of producing a video series about building one of them, much as we did with the Caledonia Yawl. Mind you, it is only a dream at this stage, but dreams, held long and played at with passion and practicality, have a way of becoming reality.

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Nathanael Herreshoff used the same 19″-long half model for the Fish as for the 12-1/2, but expanded it lengthwise by a factor of 13/12ths (compared to reducing it all over by 10/12ths for the 12-1/2 footers), and made the Fish proportionally even longer by adding 3-1/2 inches more overhang to the bow. He retained the same style of pointed coamings but capped over their forward portion to form a tiny cabin. Its bulkhead-to-bulkhead length was only about four feet, but the cabin contained a pair of facing settees and gave basic shelter for people and their gear.

Layout of the Fish class sloop from HMCo brochure.

The Fish turned out to be a seaworthy, safe, and fast boat, sort of like a poor man’s ALERION or SADIE, made less expensive because of its smaller size, no centerboard trunk, and utilizing a transom-hung rudder instead of a counter stern.

The first batch of Fish boats came out in 1916, two years after the 12-1/2s, and were all named for fish, like COD, BLUEFISH, and SHARK. To keep their cost down, they were painted all the way up to their rubrails. The first boat, named MANATEE, was quickly built: set up in mid-February and was sailing by the end of April. Others soon followed so that, by the end of May, the first twenty boats had been delivered, by water, to Oyster Bay.

Later Fishes were fancier than these, having molded, varnished sheerstrakes like the 12-1/2s. All Fish boats were gaff-rigged at first, but from 1925 on, Marconi rigs were offered as well.

Gaff rigs were fitted to the first fleets of Fish boats. (HMCo brochure)

From 1925, Marconi rigs were also offered. (HMCo brochure)

Page from the book Yachts by Herreshoff with Fish boat particulars.

Joel White's lines based on measurements I made of Mystic Seaport's Fish boat Merry Hell. (courtesy Brooklin Boat Yard) — Joel White’s lines based on measurements I made of Mystic Seaport’s Fish boat MERRY HELL. (courtesy Brooklin Boat Yard)

COMPANION VIDEO: Be sure to check out the companion video to this post:

A Three-Generation Dream Boat – The Herreshoff Fish Class Sloop – PERCH