Henry B. Nevins Incorporated was wooden-hull yacht builder in City Island, New York founded in 1907 by Henry B. Nevins. Nevins was a master yacht builder and author on vessel construction in who roots in shipbuilding began as an apprentice for Charles L. Seabury & Company[1] in City Island, New York. Later Nevins would purchase the nearby Byles Yard to increase his company's acreage. Henry B. Nevins Inc. built custom sail and motor yachts and racing craft for affluent clients,[2] but also small tugs and barges for commercial customers.[3] Ever being the perfectionist, Nevins' company seasoned its own lumber, designed and machined its own fittings, fastened its spars together with glue made of sour cream, and sometimes going so far as to trim the spars to the correct balance by weighing shavings. By such meticulous attention to detail, Nevins built more cup-winning yachts than anyone else in the industry.[1]
In 1939, Henry B. Nevins Inc. was awarded $15,000 by the United States Navy for the best design of a 54-foot motor torpedo boat.[4] During World War II, Henry B. Nevins Inc. built 24 YMS-1 class minesweepers for the U.S. Navy and 4 aircraft-rescue boats during as part of the war effort.[5] A few yachts built by Nevins before World War Two, such as USS Saluda served the Navy during the war. Built in 1938 as Odyssey, a wooden hulled yacht, USS Saluda served the US Navy into 1968 and today continues to serve the Sea Scouts of Tacoma, Washington as the Odyssey.[6] Following WWII the yard resumed private and commercial shipbuilding.[3] Nevins died in 1950.[1] Except for three more minesweepers built for the Belgian Navy in 1953-54,[3] the shipyard was unable to compete with the postwar European shipyards who were making yachts at 1/3 the cost. His widow then sold the yard in 1954 and it ceased operations in 1962. The former site of Henry B. Nevins Inc. is now occupied by the City Island School.[5] Today little remains of the yard, except for the marine railways and slipways which are only visible at low tide.[3]
Fishers Island One Design: Designed by Charles Mower these sloops had a 24-foot hull with 15 feet on the waterline and 7-foot beam.[7] The first boats were gaff rigged sloops. 25 built.
Polly - Nevins' private yacht. In 1949, Nevins was seriously injured in a fall at his shipyard and would pass away in 1950. In the last months of his life, he would ask to be carried out to the to his yacht just to feel the swell of the sea again.[1]