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Lecture: “WEE WINN and the Herreshoff’s Bulb Fin Keelers” by Sandy Lee
February 16, 2023 6:00 pm

WEE WINN is remembered with as great fondness by British yachtsmen and historians as it does for us. Built in 1892, the first year of Herreshoff Manufacturing Company sailboat production, for Miss Winnifred Sutton who took British Half Rater Class honors against all comers winning 21 of 22 races. WEE WINN sailed for many years until condemned to a bonfire but was saved and ultimately sent to the Museum.

Sandy’s team of Museum volunteers restored WEE WINN for display in the Museum. It and JILT are the only examples of Herreshoff’s bulb fin keel design in the Museum’s collection, though more than half the sailboats that left Herreshoff in those early years of sailboat production were fin keel! This type has wonderful stories to tell and were critical to Herreshoff achieving global fame!

Sandy’s presentation will discuss WEE WINN’s restoration as well as the evolution and history of Herreshoff fin keel boats, to include early women pioneers who won acclaim in these and other Herreshoff yachts.

This is the second of Sandy’s presentations covering the three projects his team accomplished. These presentations in chronological order tell story of developments and innovations that ultimately enabled Capt. Nat’s apex predator RELIANCE in 1903. The first lecture last December told the story of the Steam Era and critical foundations of Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. This talk covers the 1890’s, the decade of most intense level of innovation as the Company transitioned from steam to sail. The third presentation in April will discuss RELIANCE, of which the team has been building a 37’ tall exact scale model. Their research and building of this model uncovered unique insights into Herreshoff’s innovation practices, and design, engineering and manufacturing processes and RELIANCE’s roots which reached back to steam and earliest days of Herreshoff sail.

In-Person Reception begins at 6 pm
Lecture begins at 7 pm, Eastern
Register: https://buff.ly/3RwwuRR
Virtual Tickets: Members: $10, Non-Members: $15
In-Person Tickets: Members: $15, Non-Members: $20 ...

The high speed steam yacht STILETTO (HMCo. #118) was completed on this day 138 years ago. L. Francis Herreshoff wrote of the famous STILETTO in his biography of Captain Nat, "Wizard of Bristol":

"'Stiletto' was made famous because of her race with the Hudson River steamboat, 'Mary Powell.' The 'Mary Powell' was the fastest American steamboat, and perhaps the fastest vessel in the world, for a few years around 1880. Her speed was around twenty-five miles per hour and, although there had been other steamers that were said to have been as fast, the 'Mary' had beaten them when they were alongside...

On the tenth of June, in 1885, 'Stiletto' had her famous race with 'Mary Powell.' At first she ran alongside of her for a few miles but when Captain Nat gave the jingle, the bell signal for full speed, 'Stiletto' ran ahead, crossed 'Mary's' bow, slowed down, let 'Mary' pass her, crossed 'Mary's' stern, went ahead again and, after a run of thirty miles, was five minutes ahead of 'Mary.' This race was headline material for the papers of the time.

... After about two years, or in 1887, 'Stiletto' was sold to the U.S. Navy for a torpedo boat and as such ran in naval service for over twenty years."

📸 the first photo was taken on June 11, 1885 - the day after the infamous race; HMM photo archive. Swipe to see the STILETTO story featured on the front page of the New York Times that same day...

#SteamYacht #SteamBoat #HighSpeedSteamer #HMCo #Herreshoff #WizardOfBristol #FrontPageNews #MaryPowell #PassengerSteamer #TorpedoBoat #GildedAgeYachts ...