"Clara J"Herreshoff 'S' ClassHerreshoff Hull # 1385 |
"Clara J" is an xx year old Herreshoff "S" class sloop, designed by the "Wizard of Bristol" Nathanael Greene Herreshoff in 1919.
The "S" boats were designed to the "Universal Rule" of handicaping, which is the same rule of the big "J" class America's Cup yachts from the early 1900s. The rating formula produces a number, and the different ranges of numbers are assigned a letter, with "S" being the smallest, and "J" being the largest. Herreshoff "S" boats are 27 1⁄2 feet long and 7' 2" wide, and draw 4' 9" of depth. About 90 were built and they are so loved that about 60 are believed to still be in existance, with a few over 100 years old!.
"Clara J" (originally "Tinker Too") was built a bit later, in 1936, for Miss Ann Wickes of New York City and Newport RI. She was just 16 years old when she and her sister convinced her folks to buy her the boat. Already an avid sailor, this was an upgrade from her Cape Cod Nimblet. She named the boat "Tinker Too", as her Nimblet had been named "Tinker". The family believes the name "Tinker" came from the rhyme:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, who am I going to Marry?
In 1937 Ann won the Narragansett Bay S Boat championship! She was just 17 years old, and a woman to boot!
Then in 1938 the "Great Hurricane", also known as the "Long Island Express", did severe damge to the southern New England coast, and sank the boat. The family decided to let her go at salvage. However, she was restored, it is believed, from her original hull, and some parts of another "S" boat also sunk in the same storm.
Ann continued sailing all through her adult life, as did her two daughters, whom I have had sailing on "Clara J", their mom's old boat!
"Clara J" went through a few owners over the years, being renamed "Misty", until I found her at IYRS in August of 2013, the International Yacht Restoration School of Technology and Trades, in Newport RI. There is a story there too, but suffice it to say I fell in love with the hull shape, even though she was a wreck which would have sunk in a few minutes. IYRS students, under the leadership of senior instructor Warren Barker, restored her to like new condition over the year, delivering her to me in June 2014. IYRS sells the boats they restore, but I was able to sign up before the school year, and thus got to watch the whole process and to know all the students.
 History |
 Restoration |