Sail Number: 121
Inspiration: L. Francis Herreshoff’s “Sailing Machine”
LOA: 55’0″ / 16.76m – LWL: 51’0″ / 15.54m – Beam: 8’3″ / 2.51m – Draft: 6’0” / 1.82m – 9’0″ / 2.74m – Keel: Canting 35 degrees – Hull Number: 22 – Designer: David Hubbard – Original Owner: Van Alan Clark Jr – Current Owner: Steven H. Clark – Year Built: 1980 – Built By: Eric Goetz, Bristol RI – Hull Material: Composite – Gross Displacement: 9,500 lbs – Original Sail Area: 730 sq ft – Current Sail Area: 1,200 sq ft – Home Port: Bristol, RI
Historical:
Owner Steve Clark – “Red Herring was designed by David Hubbard. The concept was all Van Alan Clark Jr. He got the idea from L. Francis Herreshoff’s “sailing machine” in the Common Sense of yacht design, but quickly identified the flaws in Herreshoff’s proposal and identified a way to address it. As Dave succinctly put it: to segregate the righting moment and lateral resistance functions of the keel into two appendages. Thus she has a strut with ballast on it to keep her upright and a daggerboard to keep her from sliding sideways.”
“As originally launched she was a cat ketch with rotating masts and fully battened sails. She had two two centerboards a keel and a rudder. Keel canting was done by winches attached to massive 6:1 block and tackles, and she really didn’t work so well. Unfortunately my dad died in 1983 so he never really got to do much in terms of refining the concept. We knew it worked, but really didn’t know how well. After Dad died, Dave had her for a few years, and I took possession sometime around 1988. I have been nibbling away at it ever since. I redesigned the sail plan. Moved the main aft 30″ to bring jibs aboard, and a mast head asymmetrical. After a very loud and expensive noise, had GMT make some very nice light carbon masts to replace the heavy aluminum rotating spars.”
“Next I decided the centerboards were too small, and so installed a deep canard daggerboard. The keel was originally a wood/ composite blade with a fairly low aspect ratio bulb, when I decided I didn’t trust it anymore, I had Duncan MacLane and Paul Bogatai design a good one that was machined out of steel with a modern looking bulb. Finally this year, the rudder was upgraded from something that looked OK in the 1970s to a deeper hotter shit blade with a carbon [post that weighs about 1/2 of what the old blade did.”
“On board accommodation has never been a big feature of the Red Herring experience. Her cross section is a bit smaller than a J24, so that’s about what you get, stretched out a bit. There is a head with a door, but if you are my size, it’s a challenge to wipe with the door closed. On the other hand, there is a stove with an oven, which makes hot coffee cake and danishes possible, which is about as civilized as it gets. You cannot stand up in the saloon except in the hatch. There is a nice aft berth under the mizzen, but you can’t sit up anywhere except under the hatch. Ezra Smith and I designed some sea hoods this year to make her a bit more habitable in the rain and Blizo and the team at Aquidneck Custom did a wonderful job of fabricating them as well as the new coamings that make it all work as part of our 30 year refit.”
Provenance (The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest):
Owner/Guardian: (1980) Van Alan Clark Jr
Owner/Guardian: Steven H. Clark