and an Englishman Part 3
To conclude, we consider the rivalries,
unexpected friendships and lasting
legacies of this trio of great designers
WORDS NIGEL SHARP
Because so many of the boats built in the early part of the
20th century were designed to diff erent rules on opposite
sides of the Atlantic, Nathanael Herreshoff ’s rivalry with
his British counterparts was mostly in the America’s Cup.
It is highly likely that William Fife would have met
Herreshoff when he fi rst went to America with George
Lennox Watson for the 1887 Cup. The pair defi nitely met
12 years later – Fife was ill, but Herreshoff called on him
at his New York hotel to pay his respects. They met again
in 1903, when Reliance and Shamrock III were in a drydock being scrutinised by Charles Mower, the New York
Yacht Club’s offi cial measurer. The New York Times
reported: “Designer Nat Herreshoff , of whose genius
Reliance is a product, went out in a skiff and was helped
aboard the challenger by her designer, William Fife Jnr.
The rivals then chatted together for a few moments, and
then Mr Fife took Capt Herreshoff below and showed him
the internal construction of the boat. When Mr Mower was
ready, the two designers got into the skiff and watched
the measuring of the waterline”.