
Model Yachting by Full-Scale Designers
Both Nathanael and Francis Herreshoff were avid model yachtsmen.

Both Nathanael and Francis Herreshoff were avid model yachtsmen.

This material is a bit heavy going, but rewarding if you want to learn just how sophisticated self-steering boats were in the days immediately before Radio Control.

Manual arts teachers quickly recognized model yachting as providing near-perfect shop projects, especially for introductory courses. Students had to work in wood, metal, and cloth, assemble parts into a working whole, and had the opportunity to see the results of their efforts under sail, with the additional spice of a student regatta.

Wood hulls are either carved or built-up (plank-on-frame) in a manner similar to full sized boats.

An overview of Model Yachting in the US from the early days through the 1960s.

When Dave brought the existence of this boat to my attention in a series of emails I knew that she was so important that her lines had to be in the historical record.

Model yachting, like all other sports and pastimes, has been infused with the spirit of the age.

Here we present two boats by the same designer, done just a year apart.

As is so often the case, once we run an article on a boat (Prospero, Vol. 13 No. 2) we get a response from our readers, and the Prospero article in our last issue was no exception.