THREE DESIGNERS
While all designers need the ability to adapt to different
rating rules, Fife seemed particularly skilled at this – in
1895, he managed to produce designs to 10 different rules.
Charles E Nicholson died in 1954, aged 85. The last
design to which he contributed was for the 43ft (13.1m)
sloop Zoom, built for the editor of Yachting World in 1952.
During his 65-year career he designed around 200 sailing
and 100 power boats; compared to his rivals, what he
lacked in numbers he probably made up for in tonnage.
All but 20 of his designs were built by one of the
family’s two yards; and, apart from Admiralty work, those
yards built just 36 boats from the boards of other
designers during the period between Lucifer in 1887 and
1939, one of which was Fife’s disappointing 5-Rater Iernia.LASTING LEGACIES
In 1971, 26 years after the Herreshoff Manufacturing
Company closed, Nat’s son Sidney founded the Herreshoff
Marine Museum on the same site to show the “history and
innovative work of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company
and the America’s Cup competition”. Herreshoff, Fife and
Nicholson have all been inducted into the museum’s
America’s Cup Hall of Fame. The museum also houses
almost 500 of Herreshoff’s half models.
In 1985, the Fairlie Yacht Slip Company in North Ayrshire
was sold for housing. Four years later, Fairlie Restorations
set up in business on the River Hamble, in Hampshire, with
the aim of bringing old Fife yachts back to life.
When the Camper & Nicholsons Gosport yard closed in
2005, the site was purchased by a private investor and
named Endeavour Quay, after two of Nicholson’s most
famous boats. Boatbuilding and repairs still continue on
the same site – 237 years and counting.And, happily, there is a great number of surviving
yachts. Among Herreshoff’s, the schooners are probably
best known. Mariette of 1915 is still actively sailing, while
the second Vagrant has undergone a major restoration in
Holland. Although the original Westward and Elena haven’t
survived, replicas of both have been built during this
century. A number of his Universal Rule boats live on and
the Narragansett Bay Herreshoff S Class Association will
celebrate the class’s centenary in 2019.
The modern era of Fife restorations was started in the
mid 1980s at Southampton Yacht Services with the
schooner Altair and the ketch Belle Aventure. Soon after
that, Fairlie Restorations began the process of finding and
saving a great many Fifes including the only surviving 19-M
Mariquita, the 15-Ms Tuiga and The Lady Anne, the cruising
yachts Madrigal M and Kentra, and several 8-Ms. Since
1998, four regattas specifically for Fife yachts have taken
place on the Clyde very close to the Fife spiritual home at
Fairlie. A small number of non-Fifes have been invited
including, in 2008, Herreshoff’s Mariette.
The only one of Nicholson’s inter-war Big Class yachts
not to have survived is the J-Class Endeavour II – and even
she has recently been replicated, and named Hanuman. All
his other Js – Shamrock V, Velsheda and Endeavour – are
sailing today, as are Astra, Candida and Creole, with her
original-designed rig. The 1904 cruising yacht Merrymaid is
well into a circumnavigation.
Most of these yachts now benefit from owners who are
prepared to spend the money that will, hopefully, preserve
them for generations to come. The entry lists at classic
yacht regattas frequently include examples from all three
designers. It barely matters how they fare against each
other; what is important is that they are there.Clockwise, from
top left: South
Coast One design
by Young Charlie
Nicholson;
Charles E
Nicholson’s
J-Class
Endeavour; Fife’s
19-M Mariquita
and 15-M Tugia;
Herreshoff’s
NYYC 40 RowdyCBARCHIVECBARCHIV
EKATHY^ MANSFIELD