The Yachting Year 2018

36 | THE YACHTING YEAR 2018

W

ith beautiful boats at every turn, it takes

something special to draw the crowds at

the WoodenBoat Show at Mystic

Seaport. A complete restoration of a

Buzzards Bay 25, however, wasn’t just drawing admirers, it

was drawing gasps of astonishment as the team behind the

project described to passers-by the lengths to which they’d

gone in the name of authenticity.

Most owners, when they say they want an ‘authentic’

rebuild, at some point draw a line. Period-correct ropes or

sails, for example, can be unwieldy compared to their

modern counterparts. Not the owner of Mink, the

Buzzards Bay 25 at Mystic. He asked Andy Giblin and Ed

McClave of boatbuilders MP&G to bring back Mink to her

warts-and-all 1914 condition, even insisting that where

they found a mis-drilled rivet hole from the original build,

they did nothing to change or improve it.

Mink is Herresho Manufacturing Company (HMCo)

hull number 733 and was the last remaining unrestored

boat of the class, all four existing Buzzards Bay 25s having

previously been restored by MP&G.

e project pushed the much-debated concept of

authenticity to a new level. Even the smallest details were

attended to, and not just on the boat itself. It was

important, for instance, to have a period-correct

boathook. So an original casting of HMCo pattern 5640

(drawing 71-4) was laser-scanned, digitised, 3D-printed

TO A FAULT

PERFECT

A Buzzards Bay 25 restored

so she’s exactly as she was at

launch in 1914, warts and all

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS ROB PEAKE

and then castings were made. Even the handle details were

lied and replicated from an original HMCo boathook

handle. e boat’s hand-held bilge pump was recreated

using the same process, using a period-correct method of

casting, all clearly at greater expense than could have been

achieved if the owner had settled for, dare it even be

suggested, o-the-shelf modern products that might have

looked the part.

Completing the spine-tingling picture of pre-World

War I yachting on the Mystic quay was all the equipment

required by the class racing rules at Mink’s rst home,

Beverly Yacht Club, in Marion, MA. is included an

original HMCo 2in pump, a period-correct box compass,

a period-correct brass fog horn complete with brass

mouthpiece and reed, a period-correct lead line with

period-correct markers, a period-correct galvanised

all-round white lantern (as anchor light) and a 1915 life

preserver stitched in cotton twill fabric with raw cork

block llers.

Like most traditional boatbuilders, MP&G likes to

remain true to a boat’s original construction design, except

when changes are clearly in order. “We are dedicated

students of the boatbuilding techniques of the great

builders like Herresho and Nevins, who built many of the

boats we restore. ese boats have lasted remarkably well,

and when restoring them, we go to great pains to duplicate

the many successful techniques used in their construction.

Awards

2017

WINNER

ABOVE: Period

correct box

compass, brass fog

horn and anchor

light, all part of

Mink’s essential kit

RIGHT: Mink takes

her first sail at Mystic

Seaport

TYY4 Mink.indd 36 04/12/2017 15:06