We at Trudeau are huge fans of the boats of the Herreshoff family. If it seems like every other boat that comes from our yard is in some way a tribute to either Captain Nat or his son L. Francis’ work, it’s probably because it is. Of course, the one design that is most approachable, perhaps the most endearing and enduring is Nathanael’s 12 1/2 daysailer. We are in love with that boat and have tried to model it from the earliest days of TCSY (read our rhapsodic praise and historical tidbits about the real life H12 here). The Trudeau Sea Sharp (circa 2007, shown below) was our first attempt at building a 12 1/2 – like boat.

Of course, working with the SL sphere and cylinder primitives at our disposal didn’t quite lend themselves to the compound curved beauty of the 12 1/2’s lines.

It’s no surprise (to us, at least) that as soon as we had mastered a sculpty form beyond that of a hollowed out log, we would take another stab at the H12. That was the Trudeau Twenty (below left), our first sculpty boat.

Closer perhaps, but still no cigar. There are RL H12 owners in Second Life who directed comments our way on Twenty’s shortcomings as a Herreshoff H12 tribute. The masthead all wrong… the coamings are supposed to sweep all the way to the transom… the jib is supposed to self-tend on a club… and take those battens out of the main! Hey, when you are the owner of an important piece of yachting history and a bona-fide masterpiece, that entitles you to be picky!

So now, over 4 years after Sea Sharp hit the seas, nearly 2 1/2 years after Twenty’s launch – those comments taken to heart, other lessons learned, new building skills acquired, additional Linden scripting functions to abuse, led us to take 3 of our infatuation with the H12. Since it is more or less 12 feet on the SL waterline, we decided to call this one a twelve as well.

Presenting our T12

We think we nailed it this time! Though that makes it somewhat smaller than Twenty, the T12 can still haul you and 3 of your friends on sailing excursions throughout SL’s waterways. All four of those seated positions help counteract Twelve’s heeling – by shifting from side to side. There are tons – tons – of other new features.

  • Redesigned hull and other new parts – coamings, rigging, rudder, cockpit benches, tiller, mast, mast hoops, boom, jib club…
  • Beautiful sculpted gaff mainsail and jib with just the right billow and twist to bring a tear to an old salt’s eye (thanks to the very talented Bunnie Mills – give it up for her… again!).
  • Our exclusive Tru-Sail feature as first introduced on the Trudeau One. The sails flap, luff and fill to give inworld visual indication of correct sail set. No HUD angle sail by numbers… no color codes… no big inworld dials… just realistic true to life sail behavior.

Alright already … this is getting to sound a lot like our write up for the Leetle Cat II. We suggest you read about the features of the “new” Trudeau boats, including T12, there. As you might have noticed about Trudeau boats, some boats have some features, other boats have other features. We try to give each of our boats a flavor of the RL ones they are modeled on.

Here are some features unique to the T12. While she doesn’t have the spinnaker (not exactly standard equipment on the H12 when first introduced in 1914), she has a very effective wing and wing setting for running downwind.

wing and wing

T12 is the replacement for the Twenty in our lineup, as such we have kept and updated popular features from that boat. For the cruising set is the motor and the boom tent and sleeping accommodations.

Customization templates? For you hot modders and rockers, follow these links for .PSD graphics:

Hull (2.33MB) including rudder templates

Transom naming (388KB)

Sails (9.44MB) – main, jib, furled sail and boom/reefed sail templates

(see this page for step-by-step naming instructions – T12 follows the Sea Sharp procedure – Sea Sharp lives on in T12 after all!)

Dimensions

32 prims (sit locations for skipper and a crew of three)
18ft (5.5m) LOA, 6.5ft (2m) beam, 2.6ft (.79m) draft.
Cradle – 21 prims
Tent/Lantern/Mattress – 28 prims
Mooring buoy and line – 11 prims

Come see the new Trudeau 12 at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts.

Charmed? We’re sure!