herreshoff 12.5 sailboat

Herreshoff H12½

Designed by nathanael herreshoff.

The Herreshoff H-12½ has been referred to as the best small boat design ever. Perfect proportions coupled with expert construction equal a timeless design and a boat that lasts for generations. Her hull shape and external lead keel provide stability through the water and her cockpit provides plenty of comfort for 6 adults. Yet she can be easily single handed with her self tending jib. We began building the fiberglass version of the Fishers Island H-12½ in 1950 after acquiring the exclusive rights to the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co.’s designs. In 1972 we also started building the original H-12½ in fiberglass. Using our fiberglass mold made from the original Herreshoff jigs and patterns the fiberglass H-12½ has the exact shape and specifications that Captain Nat created. The H-12½’s fiberglass hull provides for easy maintenance, but bronze hardware, wooden spars and trim maintain her beauty and heritage.

New Boat Options

H-12½ (standard) - white hull/buff deck choice of gaff or marconi rig..........$57,200.

Name painting & delivery also available

Prices subject to 6.25% Massachusetts Sales Tax, if applicable

© 2024 Cape Cod Shipbuilding Co. ®, Wareham MA USA [email protected]

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Great yacht designs 1 – Herreshoff 12.5

Before his tragic recent death, Theo Rye wrote 13 brilliant design appraisals for us. Here is his first, from September 2015 – the Herreshoff 12.5

Popularity is not necessarily much of an indicator of good design in one-design classes; there are plenty of examples of popular designs that are nothing special but hit the spot for reasons of cost, availability or marketing; or simply because the founders of the class paid for the design and some were well motivated to make it work.

However, when a design is in practically continuous production for over a century, spawns dozens of imitations, triggers lawsuits and earns itself such sobriquets as “the finest small boat of all time”, you’d be a fool not to assume that this was the exception that proves the rule. The original name of the Herreshoff 12½ was the “Buzzard’s Bay Boy’s Boat” and that is actually all you really need to know.

We tend to teach people to sail in dinghies. This is curious in a way; certainly it forces you to get to grips with the reality that water is often cold, but it must be responsible for a large proportion of people who drop out of the sport; choose your first day badly and you can spend a high proportion of it bored, scared, wet, or all three. If your first day was on a 12½, chances are surely much better that you’d come back for more. For one thing these are keel boats, with a hefty ballast ratio (approaching 50 per cent), a healthy beam/length ratio and modest rig; your chances of capsizing one are vanishingly small. Then they are deep enough to offer security when it first starts to heel; it’s large enough for friends to share the experience and move about without imperilling anything;  and lastly it is responsive enough to reward, but forgiving enough not to punish inexperience.

You can forget everything else and concentrate solely on the pleasure of sailing, that hugely satisfactory process of obtaining near-silent propulsion by capturing the wind; a compelling idea for beginners and experienced alike.

With that behaviour in mind the lines and sail plan hold few surprises. This is small for a keelboat; just 16ft long, and 12ft 6in on the waterline. Her waterline beam is relatively narrow to keep her moving when it’s light; she needs the help, with just 140sq ft of sail and 1,500lb of weight. The flared topsides add stability as she heels and give her a generous cockpit for her size. Any piece of water that you can sail a boat with a draught of 2ft 6in on is going to have enough fetch to throw up at least some chop, so her bold sheer and buoyant bow sections make sense, and she looks capable of handling a reasonable swell if called on. Much is made of her hollow waterlines; they certainly put the boat in good company with Herreshoff’s own Alerion (1912) and Pleasure (1925), and the near-legendary Newport 29s, but the hollow is pretty modest (about ¾in over 4ft/1.2m, according to Alec Brainerd of Artisan Boats who probably has the most authentic set of data on the original design) so it’s probably mostly that the fine entry helps keep her moving when the going is light.

Here is a boat which is a perfect match to the original design brief – her enduring appeal may well be that she is such a great boat to learn on, and the affection that generates. First loves are unforgettable, after all.

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• Sailboat Guide

Herreshoff 12 1/2

Herreshoff 12 1/2 is a 15 ′ 9 ″ / 4.8 m monohull sailboat designed by Nathaniel G. Herreshoff and built by Quincy Adams Yacht Yard, Herreshoff Mfg. Co., and Cape Cod Shipbuilding between 1914 and 1948.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

The original boats were built by Herreshoff Manufacturing beginning in 1914 (357). From 1943 to 1948, more were built by Cape Cod Shipbuilding (34 + 200, later in fiberglass), as well as the Quincy Adams Yacht Yard (51). Cape Cod Shipbuilding came out with the BULLSEYE, built of fiberglass, with a similar hull but a different rig. The DOUGH DISH, (one of the many nicknames previously associated with the class)is a faithful rendition of the 12 1/2, first built in 1972 of fiberglass by Doughdish Inc., of which 575 were built. They have been recognized and approved by the class to race on equal footing with the remaining, original wood boats. Class rules permit a spinnaker of 140 sq. ft.

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BOAT SPECIFICATIONS:

LOA: 15′ 10″ LWL: 12′ 6″  Beam: 5′ 10″ Freeboard: 1′ 5″ Draft: 2′ 6″ Displacement: 1,500 lbs. Sail Area: 140 sq. ft. Ballast (Outside Fixed Lead): 735 lbs. Designer: N.G. Herreshoff

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