THREE DESIGNERS
number of races. Francis later wrote that “Captain Nat
didn’t know whether to be mad or glad at this result, but
he never spoke to me of these races”.LONG AND PROLIFIC CAREERS
All three designers were able to keep working almost to
the end of their long lives. Nathanael G Herreshoff died in
1938 at the age of 90. He spent his last few years making
models of boats and writing his memoirs, and wintering in
Florida or Bermuda. His last design, after a 71-year career,
was the 56ft (17m) Belisarius in 1935. His son L Francis
thought that he might have produced something like 2,000
designs “including dinghies, launches and the individual
boats of one-design classes”. He designed every single
boat – very often including their engines and many parts
such as winches, blocks and folding propellers – built bythe Herreshoff Manufacturing Company up to 1915. His
extraordinary versatility is probably best illustrated by the
fact that, at the same time as designing large numbers of
steam engines, he invented the cross-cut sail.
William Fife III died aged 87 in 1944, fi ve years after his
yard was taken over by the Admiralty. His career spanned
more than 60 years, and among his last designs were
off shore cruising boats, based on the Metre rule, such as
Solway Maid. The three generations of William Fifes
produced the designs for all but 17 of the boats built by the
family yard, excluding Admiralty work. Fife Jnr produced
more than 700 designs. Just over 200 of these were built
elsewhere, often because the Fairlie yard was too busy, or
the boats were too big, but also because he made a point
of trying to export his designs all over the world – he had
great success in Australia, New Zealand and America.Above:
Herreshoff ’s
Mariette of 1915.
inset: Fife’s AltairGUID
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CANTINI/^
PANERAIJAMES^ ROBIN
SON^ TAYLOR