extraordinary boats
alison langley ON marilee
Marilee is one of just four remaining ‘Fighting
Forties’. The 1926 Nat Herreshoff design has
just undergone an incredible restorationW
hen the New York Yacht Club
commissioned the new NY40
one-design class in 1916 Nathanael
Herreshoff’s objective was to design a
competitive racer that was seaworthy enough
for ocean racing, yet also provided elegant
accommodation for coastal cruising.
The rules required that owners helm the
yacht – except when the boat was on a run or
a reach. Professional crew was limited to four,
with an additional two allowed when racing. The
rest of the crew would be ‘Corinthian’ sailors.
The design initially came under criticism for
its wide beam and high freeboard – a major
shift from Herreshoff’s earlier class racers. It
was given the moniker ‘the flying saucer’, but
it wasn’t long before the boat’s performance
was proven and the flying saucers soon became
known as the ‘Fighting Forties’.
The 12 original NY40s only saw two racing
seasons before World War I put a halt to sailing.
Competition resumed in 1920. In 1926, two new
NY40s were launched: Marilee (hull 955) for
Edward I Cudahy, and her sistership, Rugosa II
(hull 983). The two boats were identical in their
lines, but Marilee featured a newly designed
coach house, accommodation plan, and a
larger cockpit.
The NY40s were known to race hard in their
heyday, producing some infamous battles.
The boats were also renowned for their hearty
seaworthiness, and despite their vast sail areaspractical
were famously rarely reefed. Just four NY40s
survive and race today: the well-known Rowdy,
Chinook, Rugosa, and Marilee.
Although the war had ended, the United
States had not fully recovered economically in
the ’20s. The trend was for smaller boats and
by 1927 most of the NY40 fleet had been sold,
continuing to cruise and race only periodically.
In 1933, Marilee was given an engine, and
was one of several Forties who traded her gaff
and massive sail areas for a more manageable
Marconi rig.
She received her first major refit some six
decades later, in preparation for the 2001
America’s Cup Jubilee Regatta at Cowes.
Seventy-five years after the last true season of
NY40 class racing, Marilee and Rugosa tied forfirst overall at the regatta. Marilee went on to
race with success on the Med classic circuit.Stripped back
A bottom-up restoration for Marilee wasn’t on
the radar in 2014. Then just some aesthetic
improvements, racing enhancements, and ‘light
structural’ projects were on the docket.
French & Webb was chosen to undertake the
work, while Kurt Hasselbalch, curator of the MIT
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Hart
Nautical Collections, which houses Herreshoff’s
original plans and drawings, was to prove a
valuable member of the restoration team.
In early winter 2014 they began with a
3D scan of the existing hull. This, combined
with a CAD drawing created from theMarilee is raced
without lifelines,
but threaded
sockets were
machined along
the edge of her
deck to help crew
stay safe when
sailing offshore
between regattas›
All photos Alison Langley