Info from Ted Crosby, owner of the WIlliam Hand yacht "Nisca":
Many questions about William Hand designs have gone unanswered. Whether about his powered early designs, Gramps (Mystic Seaport) or the many deep-v designs built from designs launched in Rudder Magazine in the 20’s. Cigarette was a deep-v design he built and raced from western Long Island Sound to New Bedford beating the local train. Many articles exist but might be hard to assemble into an archive since the Heart Nautical Museum at MIT Cambridge has limited resources to create a repository for the design’s curator compensation https://mitmuseum.mit.edu/.
Nisca’s original drawings/scantlings were lost in a fire at the yard she was built at, the Portland (CT) Yacht Yard across the Connecticut R. from Middletown. My own attempts have not uncovered any drawings specific to Nisca, only to other 40’s (40 foot) he drafted at his New Bedford, MA, office.
His sail powered collection begins with Nor’easter and follow a completely different principle using beamy heavy building techniques to produce a smoother sailing design than the deep-v boats.
The following info is from Wikipedia:
William H. Hand Jr. (1875–1946) was an American yacht designer. Hand's office was in Fairhaven, Massachusetts (but advertisements in The Rudder and Motorboat magazines indicate he did business in New Bedford, MA, prior to Fairhaven).
Hand has been described as one of the most prolific yacht designers of the 20th century with an exceptionally good eye for handsome boats. Hand's career began around 1900 with the design of small sailboats, but he soon shifted to V-bottomed powerboats. These latter were his specialty until after World War I, when he directed his talent to seakindly schooners including the famous examples Bowdoin and S.S.S. Lotus. Later during the 1930s, motorsailers became his passion; examples still sailing include the Guildive (a ketch).
The New England Hurricane of 1938 and accompanying tidal surge damaged or destroyed a good deal of Hand's design work and records. Hand's surviving drawings are at the Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
