Design and Lineage
Halsey Herreshoff's hand shows in a boat engineered specifically as a racer for the International Offshore Rule Half Ton class, a rating band built around 27-to-30-foot hulls where the limit rewarded performance over raw size anchor. The 28 is best read as a sleeker, racing-minded precursor to the more cruiser-focused Bristol 29.9, and the family resemblance is deliberate rather than coincidental. Where the later 29.9 carried more stern overhang, the Half Ton 28 was given less, a choice tied directly to better speed and handling in competitive conditions anchor. At 28 feet overall with a 24-foot waterline, a 10-foot beam, and roughly 6,600 pounds displacement carrying 3,000 pounds of lead ballast, the proportions are those of a pointed thoroughbred rather than a pocket cruiser.
Construction
The boat is a classic fiberglass sailboat in the plain sense of the term anchor: solid hand-laid glass without coring in the hull, about a half-inch thick below the waterline and three-eighths above, joined to a balsa-cored deck on a through-bolted, caulked flange. Bristol Yachts built its early hulls this way, and the 28 sits squarely in that construction era. The fin keel and skeg-hung rudder place it among the first-generation fin-keeled Bristol designs rather than the full-keel or keel-centerboard boats that opened the marque's line a few years earlier.
Rig and Handling
As a masthead sloop the 28 carries a tall, narrow-aspect rig suited to the IOR rule. The standard I dimension runs 37.5 feet with an 11.5-foot J, a 31-foot P, and a 10-foot E, giving a mainsail of about 158 square feet and a working jib of roughly 170 square feet; the genoa stretches to a 150-percent overlap at 325 square feet, and a 656-square-foot spinnaker was part of the race inventory. Those numbers describe a boat built to be driven hard upwind and flown downwind under kite. The reduced stern overhang keeps the waterline effective when heeled, and the skeg-hung rudder gives the helmsman a defined pivot aft of the fin — a layout that rewards an attentive crew in the Half Ton's intended racing conditions.
Accommodations
The 28 was not marketed as a cruiser, and its interior was subordinate to the IOR racing brief. The balsa-cored deck supplied stiffness and insulation overhead, and the solid-glass hull below gave a simple, repairable shell. A buyer expecting a finished cruising interior on the order of the later 29.9 will be looking at the wrong hull; the 28 was a racer first, with accommodations reduced to the minimum needed for offshore racing compliance rather than coastal comfort.
The Verdict
The Bristol 28 is a rare, purpose-built IOR Half Ton racer from a respected Rhode Island yard, designed by a Herreshoff and built in tiny numbers over a three-year window. It is a collector's racer more than a family cruiser, and its value lies in the purity of its intent and the scarcity of surviving hulls.
Pros
- Purpose-engineered for IOR Half Ton racing, not a cruiser compromise
- Designed by Halsey C. Chase Herreshoff with a clear lineage to the Bristol 29.9
- Solid hand-laid fiberglass hull with lead ballast and skeg-hung rudder
Cons
- Only about 20 built, so spares and comparable sales are scarce
- Racing-focused design with minimal cruising accommodations
- Brief production run limits fleet knowledge and support
