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17 Foot Herrishoff Row Boat

by Mike Harper - Cool, California - USA

I'm a retired NASA engineer and I spent 30 years at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. I have both of John Gardner's books on building classic small craft and had always admired the lines of the Herreshoff 17 foot rowboat. John's introduction tells of his notice of the lines in the October 1947 Rudder magazine by L. Francis Herreshoff.

Lets see, back in 1947 I was all of 12 years old and living in poverty in either Grass Valley or Marysville California. It could have been in Vallejo as we moved around quite a bit in those postwar years. My older brother was home from Europe and we were into model airplane building and flying and had some interest in school, especially recess and playing with friends. Building boats was far from my thoughts.

During the war the navy was big out here on the west coast. We visited friends and family in S. F. and Oakland so I got to see lots of ships entering and exiting the Golden Gate and anchored in the Bay. I was taken by the romance of the sea and wondered where they had been and where they were going. I guess that started me on the road to boat building. Marrying into a family of boat builders and fishermen helped a bunch too. That relationship lead to the National Fisherman newspaper and John Gardner's articles on boatbuilding.

A lot of life happened between those years and when I started my first boat, a San Francisco Bay Pelican in 1967, school, marriage, children, jobs took priority for a while. Looking back now, that boat was the entrance fee to a wonderful group of friends and activities. One of the best things I did for my family and myself.

The path to the Herreshoff started with the destruction of the Samarang, a small rowboat/sailboat by the snows up at our cabin at Donner Lake. The Samarang was the tender for its namesake round the world sailboat that was owned by a good friend of my wife's father. The larger Samarang is still sailing.

Picking up Gardner's Vol #1, I went to Section 3, A Plywood Pram. Just about the right size to replace the Samarang and easy to build. That pram proved to be a good rowboat. As I got to thinking, it came to me that it would be nice to have a two station rowboat at the cabin for our family members, husbands and wives and friends to row together. That lead back to Gardner again and the Herreshoff.

I had previously built a lapstrake pram from Howard Chapelle's Boatbuilding book. That building process took 8-10 years to complete. From that slow experience I decided to go stitch and glue and minimum weight. I wanted to get the boat in the water as quick as possible. Gardner modified Herreshoff's lines by adding an inch of freeboard. One of Gardner's commenters sent lines increasing the beam to 48 inches from 42. I went with that set of lines. Most of the users of the boat will be novices to boating and rowing so I wanted the extra stability offered by the extra beam.

As the boat is double ended, I lofted only half to get station and bottom plank sizes. I added floatation tanks at each end with waterproof access hatches for safety and storage. The hull is covered inside and out with fiberglass set in epoxy and the resulting hull is quite stiff. If I were to do the boat over I would do lapstrake as I now know how to do it and like the looks. When we are up at the lake in the summer months I row the boat round Donner Lake every morning before the wind and power boats, wake boats, come out and chop up the water. The boat pounds going into powerboat wakes and needs a skeg if rowing in a crosswind. I think it would not pound in ocean waves or when loaded on its lines. It rows easy and carries well. I also added adjustable kayak foot braces to the rowing stations.

There is nothing better than messing with boats. We mix sailing/rowing boats and riding horses. Now I need to move some boat building jigs so I can get room to build more boats. Next up is adding a wooden rub rail the the Boston Whaler and building a wooden standup paddle board.