Herreshoff sailboats for sale

Buying a used Herreshoff: the builder and era matter more than the badge

A boat listed as "Herreshoff" could be an original wooden one-design built before 1945, a Cape Cod Shipbuilding hull built at any point in that yard's long production run since 1947, a fiberglass Doughdish reproduction, a cold-molded Alerion Class Sloop recreation, or a 1980s Cat Ketch Corporation cruiser — several essentially different products from unrelated builders that happen to share Nathanael Herreshoff's design pedigree. Before weighing condition, a buyer needs to work out which of these lines a specific hull belongs to, because construction material, age, and originality expectations differ by builder rather than by model name alone.

Which era to target

Boats built by the original Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. before its 1945 closing are wooden hulls from that firm's original 1878-1945 run, built to designs by Nathanael Herreshoff himself. Boats from Cape Cod Shipbuilding Co., which bought the Herreshoff design rights in 1947, span a much wider range: it built the 12 1/2 in wood through 1950, added other fiberglass Herreshoff designs beginning with the 1949 Bull's Eye, and only brought the 12 1/2 itself into fiberglass twenty-three years later, in 1972 — so build year alone will not tell you a Cape Cod Shipbuilding hull's material. Doughdish reproductions, built since 1973 by a line running from creator Bill Harding through Edey & Duff to Ballentine's Boat Shop, are fiberglass throughout. The Alerion Class Sloop, revived in 1977 by Alfie Sanford, is cold-molded wood, not fiberglass, even though it arrived well after Cape Cod Shipbuilding had already introduced fiberglass Herreshoff designs. The Cat Ketch Corporation's H-31 and related models, built between 1979 and 1986, split between cold-molded mahogany and Airex-cored fiberglass construction within the same production run.

What to inspect across the range

The Cat Ketch Corporation's H-line carries the most documented inspection guidance. Practical Sailor's owner survey found that a surveyor declined to recommend any cold-molded H-31 because the fiberglass sheathing over the hull, up to just above the waterline, was not mechanically fastened to the wood beneath it, and one owner reported having to reglue wooden spars after thirteen years when the original glue joints failed. On the fiberglass-and-Airex boats, several owners found the Airex core had not been replaced with solid glass at through-hull fittings — a lapse designer Halsey Herreshoff said should not have happened — and owners also flagged skeg-to-hull attachment bolts in poor condition and stanchions mounted without backing plates. Buyers of a Cat Ketch-era hull should have a surveyor check these specific points; buyers of the other Herreshoff lines should budget for a standard wood or fiberglass survey appropriate to that boat's actual construction and age rather than assume it from the name.

Navigating the lineup

The Herreshoff name covers everything from small one-design daysailers to 1980s cat-ketch cruising boats, so the right starting point depends on whether a buyer wants a small classic one-design, a faithfully reproduced 12 1/2 or Alerion, or a larger cruising hull from the Cat Ketch Corporation era. The full model directory on this page breaks the lineup down by builder and size for closer comparison.