Hmmm... Well it was the Brooks Family that owned Minx (ex TARGET as she was known then) for like 20 years before it was donated to the museum- IE Jon Brooks here on this site. That is the boat I grew up crewing on - and my first Herreshoff experience. My understanding is it was badly damaged in the Hurricane of '38 - and Sidney purchased it and had it rebuilt for the family use. There are a number of "different" things Sidney did to it at the time the separate her out from any other 12 I know. All her bronze fittings are all chrome plated, and I seem to remember she had an unusual tear-drop shaped mast for a 12, and used a wishboom on the jib. She was also remarkably fast - at least in capable hands. My understanding is the plate she has is one that was lying around the shop and added during the rebuild.
From Steve Nagy:
This boat was at the Herreshoff yard when damaged by the 1938 hurricane. This is why the port-side coaming is pieced together - it was broken horizontally by the storm. She was purchased by Becky Herreshoff and re-built by Sydney Herreshoff for sons Nathanael and Halsey to learn to sail in. It has 2-piece seats and chromed bronze hardware. It was donated to museum in 1981 by Owen E. Brooks. This one is a real mystery, because the building record states that hull 1376 was not built. However, it was part of the factory mixup where the actual assigned numbers did not match the records. According to John Palmieri of the Herreshoff Museum, this is NOT the actual hull number of Minx. He believes they found this plate lying around unused (as it would be if the corresponding hull was never built), and simply attached it to Minx, which was missing it’s plate.
BTW - Jon will be sponsoring her restoration in the next couple of years. She was removed from the gift shop at the museum a year or so ago and is no longer on display.
