Halsey Chase Herreshoff (born 1933) is a Naval Architect of production- and custom yachts, sailor and former president of Herreshoff Marine Museum. At the museum he and Edward duMoulin founded the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1992. Halsey is son of Sidney DeWolf Herreshoff and Rebecca Chase Herreshoff and the grandson of the famous Nathanael Greene Herreshoff. As several before him in the Herreshoff family he studied Naval Architecture. At Webb Institute of Naval Architecture he finished a bachelors degree and later a master at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the US navy he achieved rank of Lieutenant before he started as a Naval Architect at the Bethlehem Steel Company and as a teacher at MIT. Halsey was involved in politics and was the elected chief executive officer (Town Administrator) in Bristol Town Council, Rhode Island from 1986 to 1994.[1]
As a yacht designer his Freedom 40 design led to a line of Herreshoff ketches from 27 to 45 feet and changed the way the world felt about un-stayed masts. Halsey might be best known for his career as an America's Cup sailor, having served on many cup defenders of the 12-metre class Era, first as bowman on Columbia in 1958 and concluding as navigator on Liberty in 1983.[2] But perhaps his greatest contribution to sailing has been his development of the America's Cup Hall of Fame at the Herreshoff Marine Museum.[3]