Buzzards Bay 21

[Adam]

Don't know if I've asked this before but the registry shows one BB21. What is a BB21?

[Steve]

Actually, there are 3:  #547, #573, and #574.  The hull looks like a larger 15-footer, with a keel rather than a centerboard.  To my knowledge, all are unaccounted for.

[b.beardsley]

Rumour has it that Steve Ballentine broke one up, may still have lead and deadwood.

[HerreshoffHistory]

Hm, I think we need to revisit this "Buzzards Bay 21" topic. First
off, what is a "Buzzards Bay 21"? What defines it? Why do you think
that #547s, #573s, and #574s are "Buzzards Bay 21s"?

Note that they are very different boats. #547s Onagh and #574s are
both finkeel raceabouts built from the same model (No. 305). #573s
Terrapin, on the other hand, was really designated by HMCo as a
"Buzzards Bay 21 Class". But she is a keel and centerboard boat, no
finkeel, and she was built from another model (No. 313).

Thus, there was no Herreshoff-built Buzzards Bay 21' one-design class
(like, say, the BB15s or the BB18s).

There was, however, a very active class of 21' WL knockabouts and
raceabouts racing in Buzzards Bay after the turn of the century.

My guess is that #547s Onagh, #548s Radiant, #555s [Cancelled], #573s
Terrapin, #574s Arethusa, #611s Illusion, and later possibly the
Beverly YC Raceabouts #696s Foraminifer, #701s Foraminifer, #705s
Saracen and #707s Pollywog were all designed for this class. I am sure
one could find more details in the yearbooks of the Beverly Yacht
Club.

Bill Beardsley, might you be able to shed more light on this topic?

[b.beardsley]

I'm about to go away for a week, but I would like to do some research on this class. I have ready access to the BYC yearbooks, as well
as actually owning a few. I don't have it in front of me, but I'm pretty sure Maynard's book talks about Radiant and says something
like she would have been a forerunner to a BB21 class.

Radiant looks a lot like my boat Snipe, a Newport 15. Also, Dave Corcoran always wanted to build one, for the same reason -
the next size in a family of boats.

I'm sure most of you know that in addition to the famous BB25s of 1914, there was an 1898 two-boat class of BB25s
These boats, Blazing Star and May Queen, are very definitely in the same family as the 15. Blazing Star is at Mystic,
and looks exactly like a 15. Maynard says that May Queen was seen in Portland, Maine within the last 25 years, there's
a project for the detectives.

[Steve]

It looks like we have some more research to do.  Perhaps the confusion is "Buzzards Bay 21" vs. "21-Foot Class".  TERRAPIN definitely has a different hull shape, and looks more like the typical BB hull.

[Steve]

In The Rudder of November, 1916, there is a column on the Beverly Yacht Club.  The second-to-last paragraph is:

"In the Herreshoff 21-foot class there were 58 starters in thirteen races.  J.L. Stackpole's Deccoon and G.L. Stone's Makaboro II [#690, sic] each won 6 races, and the odd event was won by R.W. Cumming's Mirpeh."

Do you suppose these were the Buzzards Bay 21's ?