Would Herreshoff Find Romance in Boats Today?

If he were alive today, I wonder what that crusty old yacht designer, L. Francis Herreshoff, would think of the power cruisers of the 1930s and ‘40s? Oh, how he used to vilify those red mahogany floating “stages,” as he called them.

Herreshoff was all for “romance” in his vessels. By romance he meant a boat that “is out of the usual and pleasing to contemplate . . . A romantic vessel is one that looks like a good sea boat, one which has a good sheer and nicely proportioned ends: in short a vessel that he (a sailor) falls in love with at first sight.”

His ire extended to a vessel so cluttered with mechanical gadgets and electrical devices that the cabin no longer is fit to live in.

These modern pleasure cruisers, he raged, “particularly the motor boats, seem to be planned to be a receptacle for the insane and perverted, whereas 50 or 60 years the yacht was the most beautiful thing afloat.”

These prejudices are sprinkled thickly among the soundest advice on sailing ever written in Herreshoff’s classic book, “The Compleat Cruiser.”

I took his book from my boat’s bookshelf last weekend and carried it into the cockpit, where I settled down to read it, perhaps, for the 20th time, opening it at random.

It was a perfect afternoon for Herreshoff. The sky was darkly overcast, with only occasional patches of sunlight breaking through. It had rained briefly for a couple times. I had rigged the big winter awning, with its two spreaders, over the boom, so my wife and I were dry and snug in our reading and harbor watching. It was a romantic afternoon.

The awning afforded a good view past the Herald Bird’s stern at what was going on in White’s Cove, Catalina Island, but we had to lean down a bit to peer under the edges of the canvas lashed to the lifelines to watch the activity on either side of us. No matter. Peer out port, starboard and astern we did at about every page of our respective reading. Reading on board our little ship is synonymous with keeping a close eye on the harbor, as I’ve observed it is on nearly all other vessels here.

That’s when I began wondering what Herreshoff would have thought today of the yachts of the ‘30s and ‘40s compared to the ultra-beamy fiberglass cruisers, some with pronounced reverse sheers, and loaded with electronic gadgetry, right down to microwave ovens. There were a number of such vessels moored in the cove, along with a motorboat at anchor from his era that he probably would have detested.

I suspect the old curmudgeon would have changed his mind now. The old vessel, with its plumb bow and lovely fantail stern, its red mahogany topsides, seemed the epitome of romance as compared to its modern counterparts. It was a lesson in how the passage of time alters one’s aesthetic preferences.

Sailing Notes Bill Power’s High Roler from the Newport Harbor Yacht Club won overall and class title, on corrected time, in the Atlantic Perpetual Division. Sailed in San Francisco waters, this race was the St. Francis Yacht Club’s Perpetual Regatta, known generally as San Francisco’s “Big Boat Series.” John Aren’s Tomahawk from the Balboa Yacht Club won on corrected time the City of San Francisco division. . . . Stars and Stripes, Dennis Conner’s 12-meter challenger for America’s Cup, was partially unveiled at Rhor Marine Industries in National City. The yacht’s keel was covered, because the Sail America Syndicate, out the San Diego Yacht Club, wants to keep its conformation a secret. Stars and Stripes is one of three new 12’s being created for Conner’s campaign. . . . The Royal Perth Yacht Club, Australia, has designed a new course for the 1987 America’s Cup race. The course will be the traditional 24.3 miles in length, but the length of each leg has been shortened and an additional windward-leeward set of legs has been charted. The shortening of legs is to avoid coral outcroppings. . . . Cal-40 owners have formed a new class association. Ten of the 1960 vintage sailboats from Dana Point, Channel Islands and some other marinas met in Howland’s Landing, Catalina, recently for the first annual cruise. Cal-40’s designed by Bill Lapworth were the top racers of the period. . . . Burt Benjamin’s Lone Star, a Nelson/Marek 55, from Southwestern Yacht Club, took line honors in the Newport Beach to Coronado Race. The race was sponsored by the Bahia Corinthian and Coronado Yacht Clubs.