38 | THE YACHTING YEAR 2018
However, we also recognise that the more innovative
techniques of the great yacht builders were experimental
when many of the boats were built. We now have the
bene t of almost 100 years of in-service destructive
testing. If a technique worked, we follow it closely. If it
didn’t work, we don’t hesitate to change it.”
However, the Mink project’s motto became ‘Keep
drinking the Kool-Aid’, as repeatedly the team were asked
to ignore common sense and stick rigidly to the mantra of
‘original at all costs’.
Heads were turning when Mink cast o her lines and
took a sail downriver at Mystic, showing o her new
cotton sails made by Mark Butler’s team at James Lawrence
Sailmakers, in Brightlingsea, Essex.
Butler said: “Every detail in the sails is as it was in 1914.
We used the same number of stitches. e cotton cloth is
the same weight. We used sisal bolt ropes, rarely used in
the UK. Instead of brass eyes on the sails, they’re all
galvanised steel. ey’re going to rust. Herresho didn’t
think the sails would last more than three years, so he used
what rings he could get hold of. Galvanised rings would
have been used in their bucketload back then.
“We struggled like hell with some of the seams.
Originally cotton sailcloth had a woven selvedge. at’s
very hard to get nowadays so we created it ourselves using
tiny little seams.
“ ey are the rst sails that we’ve not put our logo on- they’re branded as the Herresho Manufacturing
Company – and they are exact replicas of Herresho -made
sails. I think Herresho would have been very pleased
with what we did.”
The Herresho Manufacturing Company only built
five Buzzards Bay 25s, all in 1914, each priced at
$2,000. The contracts for Mink (hull no 733) and
Vitessa (hull no 734) were signed on March 28. Nat
Herresho carved Mink’s half model, considered to
be one of his favourites, by April 5. The construction
drawing was issued on April 12 and on June 14, just 12
weeks after signing the contract, Nat’s son L Francis
Herresho conducted a test sail. Mink was delivered
to the Beverly Yacht Club, Marion, MA, where she
raced for the first time on June 27, with her sister
Vitessa. Meanwhile a third BB25 contract had been
signed for Bagatelle (hull no 736). (This boat, known
on the US east coast as ‘Bags’, is owned by Glenn
Kim. It was he who suggested to a friend that he take
a look at Mink. What Glenn did not realise then was
how far his friend, a first-time boatowner, would go
with the restoration.) The Herresho Manufacturing
Company signed a contract for a fourth BB25, White
Cap, at the same time as Bags. White Cap (hull no
738) is now called Aria and resides in the Herresho
Marine Museum in Bristol. MP&G have restored all
four of these BB25s. One other, Tarantula (hull 741), is
listed on the Herresho Registry as having been built
later in 1914, but its fate is unknown.
A resurgence in the 1980s saw many cold-mould-
ed versions built, by professional and by amateur
builders, mostly on the US east coast.Buzzards Bay 25
TYY4 Mink.indd 38 04/12/2017 15:07