Herreshoff & Newick inducted to Hall of Fame

[brian eiland]

RAD MAN GETS RESPECT
by Kimball Livingston, SAIL WEST

Multihulls are on-topic so it's doubledog right in 2008 to see Dick Newick
as the first multihull designer since Nathanael Herreshoff inducted into the
North American Boat Designers Hall of Fame. In one adventure, Cap't Nat
designed and built a cat named Amaryllis, sailed it 200 miles from Bristol
to New York at an average of 14 knots, and then gave the 1876 Centennial
Regatta fleet such a walloping that he was told to come back with a monohull
next time or don't come back at all.

Ninety-three years later another phenomenon arrived, and on that I quote
myself: "It's a story worth telling around the campfires of each new
generation, how an outside-the-box 40-foot proa sailed by Tom Follett
electrified the sailing world with an unexpected third-place finish in the
1968 Singlehanded Transatlantic Race, launching the multihull era in the
Atlantic and launching the design career of one Dick Newick."

-- Read on:
http://sailmagazine.blogspot.com/200...akes-good.html

[Meanz Beanz]

Originally Posted by brian eiland

In one adventure, Cap't Nat
designed and built a cat named Amaryllis, sailed it 200 miles from Bristol
to New York at an average of 14 knots, and then gave the 1876 Centennial
Regatta fleet such a walloping that he was told to come back with a monohull
next time or don't come back at all.

Didn't know that ! Thanks I have got to find some pictures of this beasty, I'd love to see what lines he came up with.

Cheers
Mbz

[Meanz Beanz]

Quite radical really ! For 1876 !!

[Earl Boebert]

In the course of this project Herreshoff also invented the vane steering gear, which can still be seen on the patent model in the Herreshoff museum. The vane, mounted on the masthead rather than the stern, was a turkey feather.

Cheers,

Earl

[brian eiland]

If you'd have gone to my webpage here and clicked on "Amarylis" you would have gotten an article about Nat's catamaran.

"I can with a good whole-sail breeze, boat to windward faster, by a mile an hour at least, than any other sailing vessel afloat." -Nathanael Herreshoff , the infamous yacht designer speaking of his revolutionary 25' catamaran design, Amarylis.

.....the year, 1876"

[Meanz Beanz]

Yeah I found that and had a look... but I wanted pic's, I need to see these things Could not imagine what he'd have drawn and quite surprised by the craft he did draw.

[charmc]

Brian and Beanz,

Thanks to you both for the articles and the photos.

"Stranger than this were the many suggestions of improvements it called forth. ... A bare sight of the Amarylis was sufficient. ... If the publication of ideas is all that is required to develop a new principle the condition of the double boat has arrived at its climax. But how many of those persons who last summer were eager to ventilate their opinions have gone to work and practically demonstrated them? To be sure, a good deal can be learned in talking over a matter, but some shavings must be made and some nails be driven before new principles can be firmly established." (Article copied by Brian Eiland from Multihulls magazine; originally by Captain N. G. Herreshoff in the New York Herald, April 16, 1877)

Talk about timeless wisdom!

Looks like some things haven't changed much.

[Meanz Beanz]

That thing must have been a blast to sail in 1876 ! What a wild looking machine for its day. Nat certainly got the idea of a multi very quickly, I was expecting something a touch heavier and more staid.

[ThomD]

Anyone know whether the central hull/pod is just a South Bay scooter?