Photo: @herreshoff_s_class
Starting in the Fall of 1919, the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company built 94 Herreshoff S Class one-design keelboats. It is "guesstimated" that 45-50 of these sweet-sailing 28-footers are still in existence 100 years later, and almost half of those participated in the Herreshoff S Class Centennial Series!
The series encompassed four weekends of sailing across three regattas: Larchmont Race on Long Island Sound, the Newport S Class Regatta in Newport and the Herreshoff Classic Yacht Regatta in Bristol on the last weekend of August. Many owners traveled long distances to sail in these events, towing boats from Narragansett Bay and Quissett to Larchmont in July and then towing from Larchmont and Quissett to Newport and Bristol in August. Of the 23 boats that sailed in any of these events, 13 sailed in all of them - four each from the Narragansett Bay and Quissett fleets, and five from the Western Long Island Sound fleet.
After a dominant performance in Larchmont Race Week, Paul Del Nero's VINDEX, fresh from a pretty extensive restoration by East Passage Boatwrights, hung on for the overall win followed by Bob Patterson's PIRATE and Fred Roy's SURPRISE - a clean sweep of the podium by the Narragansett Bay fleet.
Congratulations to the Herreshoff S Class on 100 years of great racing!
