1925 Herreshoff 16′ Fish Class “BUTTERFLY”

** THIS BOAT IS ORIGINALLY LISTED ON HERRESHOFF YACHT SALES **

Boat :  1925 Herreshoff 16′ Fish Class

Boat name : “BUTTERFLY”

Asking price :  $27,500

Boat location :  Mystic, Ct

1925 Herreshoff 16’ Fishboat Class, Mystic, CT, $27,500

BUTTERFLY, HMCo#9058, is a rare find of a 1925 classic, completely rebuilt in 1995.

LOA: 20’ 9”
LWL: 16’
Beam: 7’ 1.5”
Draft: 3.1”

Fish Class History from The Herreshoff Registry
The first group of 23 Fish class sloops was delivered to the Sewanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club on Long Island for the start of the 1916 racing season. Members wanted a safe boat that was good both for teaching new sailors and for club racing. Captain Nat used the same model as he used for the 12 1/2 to design a boat with a small cuddy and large cockpit. After scaling up, an additional 3 1/2” was added to the bow for a proportionately longer overhang. Unlike the 12 1/2, the mast is stepped forward of the coaming.

A total of 41 boats were built by the company. Sewanhaka took 26, the Warwick Country Club took 9, and the others went to individual buyers. The SCYC boats had a gaff rig and a half-round oak rubrail atop cedar planking, as compared to the signature molded sheerstrake of the others. Each of the SCYC boats was named for a species of fish, and the Warwick boats were named for cartoon characters.

Racing was active in the first several seasons at Seawanhaka until the popularity of the class began to fade. Many of the boats found their way to Mattapoisett by 1926. The hurricane of 1938 destroyed much of the fleet, and today a little more than half of the original 41 are known to have survived.

Sidney Herreshoff designed a modification to the Fish design to provide it with a small cabin for more comfortable cruising. This boat was called the Marlin, and HMCo built 4 of these. The class endures with the Joel White-designed Flatfish, Chuck Paine’s Pisces 21, and a fiberglass interpretation called the Petrel.