Halsey Herreshoff Discusses A Sailor's Life
Famed ship engineer Halsey Herreshoff is a sailing icon. But even if you know nothing about sailing, you’ll recognize one of the many yachts designed his family. The Reliance, a 1903 yacht designed and built by Herreshoff’s grandfather, is depicted on Rhode Island’s state quarter.
Herreshoff, who was the featured speaker during Mitchell College ’s reunion weekend, is the third-generation of ship builders in a family of sailors from Bristol, RI. He jokes that the Ocean State’s governor accused him of voting a thousand times to make sure the Reliance won the coin toss. The governor’s personal preference, he adds, was for the Pell Bridge. In the end, thanks to a little artistic license, they both got their wish.
Although the image kept Herreshoff awake at nights for a while, the quarter shows the Reliance sailing toward the Pell Bridge, even though the Reliance has a mast that is 200 feet tall and the bridge clearance is 160 feet. “There are millions of quarters of this great boat sailing toward a bridge under which it cannot pass!” Herreshoff laughs.
From September 16-19, Harbour Court, the New York Yacht Club's (NYYC) on-the-water clubhouse in Newport, Rhode Island, will welcome several hundred of
