Catamaran (1m).
L/D:
25 × 4 (7.6m × 0.1m). Hull:
wood. Des.:
Nathanael G. Herreshoff. Built:
John Brown Herreshoff, Bristol, R.I.; 1875.
In 1875, Nathanael G. Herreshoff was an employee of the Corliss Steam Engine Company, in Providence, Rhode Island, when he designed the catamaran, Amarylis. While the concept of the catamaran was by no means new, Herreshoff
devised a [patented] system of jointed connections between the hulls and intermediate structure that carried the rig, so the hulls could pitch and dive independently with but little restraint. These catamarans could sail very fast, and would make 20 m.p.h. on a close reach, also 8 m.p.h. dead to windward.
Herreshoff fully intended Amarylis to be sailed for cruising, and he was upset when in 1876 the Centennial Regatta race committee in New York disqualified his catamaran—the outright winner—on the grounds that his tent (the peak of which was lashed to the raised boom) did not constitute proper cruising accommodation. Herreshoff attempted to go into business for himself on the strength of the catamaran design, but there was virtually no market and only three such craft were built after he and his brother formed the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in 1877. Amarylis was sold to Fred Hughes but her eventual fate is unknown. In 1933, K. T. Keller, president of the Chrysler Corporation, ordered a near replica named Amarylis II. After half a century at the Ford Dearborn Museum, this vessel was given to the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island.
Bray & Pinheiro, Herreshoff of Bristol. Pinheiro, "Herreshoff Catamarans—Amarylis."
