Particulars
- See This Boat's Main Listing on the Web
- Length:
- 23 ft 10 in
- Type:
- Sail
- Hull Material:
- Wood
- Designer:
- N.G. Herreshoff
- Builder:
- IYRS School of Technology & Trades
- Year Built:
- 2019
- Power:
- n/a
- Asking Price:
- $39,000
- Name:
- WEE WINN
- Location:
- Newport, RI, US
- Contact Name:
- Bill Kenyon
- Contact Phone:
- 401.848.5777 x213
- Contact Email:
- bkenyon@iyrs.edu
Off Center Harbor's Remarks
Based on an 1892 Herreshoff design and built by the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, RI, the Half-Rater sloop represents a chance to own a virtually brand-new 19th-century boat. You often read descriptions that say, “She’ll turn heads in every harbor.” Well, few designs will turn heads any more than this slippery little creature.
Description from Boat's Main Listing
24’ HERRESHOFF-DESIGNED HALF-RATER SLOOP WEE WINN
Built by the International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS) in 2019 using N.G. Herreshoff’s 117-year-old drawings, she’s a masterpiece—a Swiss watch that floats and sails. Second-year students led by Warren Barker put her together as carefully as did the Herreshoff Mfg. Co. craftsmen who built Miss Winnifred Sutton’s original WEE WINN back in 1892. You can determine that for yourself since the original boat is virtually just up the street from IYRS at the Herreshoff Marine Museum.
She’s a delicate little thing with only 3/8”-thick planking and decking, and steam-bent oak frames that alternate between a tiny 5/8” square and an even tinier ½” square at their heads—the former being the main frames that grow a quarter of an inch by tapering as they approach the keel. Hanging below the timber keel is a thin bronze fin (3/8”) to which a streamlined chunk of lead is attached as ballast. This 23’10” keel boat weighs but 1,120 pounds.
“Raters,” as these little fin-keelers were called, appealed especially to English women of the 1890s who wanted to race their own boats. WEE WINN, with Miss Sutton at her yoke-style helm, proved an unbeatable combination even reefed down in rough weather. They’re wet, of course, because of having such low freeboard and such narrow, smelt-like hulls. (This boat is only four and a half feet wide!) But with their small cockpits, low-down ballast keels, and floatation chambers fore and aft, they’re perfectly safe—and about as sporty as you can get.
Treated with care, this replica should last at least a century—just as her twin from 1892 has done.
The $39,000 asking price may sound high but after considering the cost of materials such as the bronze plate keel and rudder, the many special fittings and features, plus the caliber of skill in putting it all together, it should dawn on you that this is more of an heirloom than a throwaway sailboat. The value is there, and with careful use and care will remain so for generation after generation, no doubt about it.
Particulars: Length on deck = 23’10”, LWL = 16’3”, Beam = 4’6”, Draft = 3’0”
For the IYRS listing: https://www.iyrs.edu/about/boats-for-sale/herreshoff-wee-winn
For more about her construction: https://www.iyrs.edu/iyrs-blog/blog-details-page/~board/student-blogs/post/the-building-of-a-storied-sailboat
For history of the original boat (after typing WEE WINN into the search box): http://research.herreshoff.info/Menu/index_diary.htm
For story about the only other replica, built in England and named Miss Winnifred, see Classic Boat magazine, April, 2000.