Where does sail # H 68 come from?

[Baltic Boat Works]

One of my clients both the Herreshoff H12 "PRECISELY", HMCo #1207. The boat carries the sail # H68. Does anyone know who assigned this number (what fleet)?

Thanks

[Steve]

Does Wally Healy still own PRECISELY, or does she have a new owner?

That number looks like it could have been assigned by the Beverly Yacht Club.   The boat lived in Marion from at least 1960 - 1995, and sailed at BYC from about 1960 - 1965 as MUTE SWAN with a sail number of H-55.  It could possibly have been assigned H-65 by BYC in some other years, but we have too many gaps in the provenance to know that for sure.

[Adam]

Well she was Delivered to S. J. Watts in Marion (contract June 1931) so my guess is she's always been a Marion boat through 1995....Wouldn't have thought the sail number changed while @ Marion - and since she was definately H55 in the 1960's there, I'd bet it was changed after 1995....Looks like she was a RI boat after 95....

[Baltic Boat Works]

Thanks for the answers - Beverly YC actually confirmed that she was known there under sail # H55. It might simply be a case of "hand-down" sails...

Wally Healy actually passed away last year and his wife Carol just sold the boat to Ted Boylan. PRECISELY will sail out of Gloucester, MA.

[Steve]

Thanks for the update.  I am so sorry to hear about Wally.  He was a very nice guy ... I spent hours on the phone with him.

[Baltic Boat Works]

As for the contract date: the registry shows job # 1207 for 1934 not 1931, even though I admit that the handwriting is hard to interpret. But some job numbers before - still in 1931 - already show later months than #1207.

[Adam]

1207 was #2 of the 1206 class of boats for Marion - From the notes on the record: "Marion, Mass.#1206 Class. Order Issued Sept. 8/31".

The whole class has what looks like "1934" - with a cross through the 4 - which is where the confusion is. My first look I thought the same - 1934 - but I think they are clearly 1931.

HH - Am I reading the record correctly?

[Steve]

There are places in the record where the numbers and dates don't follow consecutively.  I think HerrshoffHistory can add some clarity to this.

[HerreshoffHistory]

It appears I am slightly late responding to this question, my apologies. :-)

The date in the Construction Record is really misleading. It was originally "May 28/34" in ink. Someone then changed the 4 to a 1, making it a 1931 (and did so for all numbers from #1206 to #1211, i.e. the entire #1206 class of 12 1/2s). However, itis clear that the correct year for the entire class should be 1934.

As per the Construction Record the work order to build the #1206 class had indeed been issued 'Sept 8/31. But as per the contract for #1207s in the collection of the Herreshoff Marine Museum it was contracted for on the '30th day of June 1934' for a delivery 'on or about July 8, 1934'. This boat was thus built on speculation and could not be sold until two-and-a-half years later. The contract was signed by Stephen J. Watts, a boatbuilder in Marion, Mass.