30' plywood sharpie

Frank; Rooting around on my bookshelves, I found: The Migrations of An American Boat Type. A booklet type publication from the US Government Printing Office. The booklet is attributed to information from the Museum of History and Technology /Smithsonian. The cover says that it is Bulletin 228, paper number 25. The booklet traces the developement and migration of the sharpie from New Haven, Chesapeake, North Carolina, Florida etc.. There are some pictures and a couple of lines drawings along with scantlings and other things. Interesting stuff that might be available from USgov printing office or perhaps Smithsonian.

 

That booklet is available as a free ebook from the Gutenberg Project, and definitely worth reading. It was written by Chapelle, and has much of the same information on sharpies as his American Small Sailing Craft.



http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/29285

 

There is a new Maritime museum here near me in west Bradenton..more specifically Cortez,Florida...which some of you may know is a fishing village here near Bradenton Beach that has a long and proud history.
It has been open for more than a year but I haven't made it inside yet. I went to the museum a few months back and they were closed on Sundays not too suprisingly. I'm wating for my brother to come down in a few weeks and we'll go on a Saturday....
I am really looking forward to seeing what they have done there and see what boats they have on static display and so forth.

As for the Bahamian fishing smacks..I used to have a great picture of one till the comp crashed a while back...I'm pretty sure they were still racing the old Bahamian fishing smacks in Nassau I believe into the early seventies in an annual race...maybe someone can correct me if it was another port town...there should be some amount of documentation out there...not sure...there were a few naval historians/researchers who went around the Caribbean in the 1970's trying to interview old sailors/boatbuilders and attempting to take the lines off of the old craft still in one piece either floating or lying around various harbors before they were pretty much all gone.... I'll try to see what I can find on the Cuban smacks too...which interest me greatly..

 

Speaking of Chapelle and free stuff, here's a set of plans and building instructions for his 22' dory-sharpie Southwind, at svensons.com. It has two sail plans: a Great lakes sharpie-style cat ketch, or a gunter-rigged sloop. He shows a cuddy cabin with the cat ketch rig, and an open cockpit with a high coaming for the sloop rig.


http://www.svensons.com/boat/?p=SailBoats/South

 

Souljour; The Manatee Maritime Museum is a small place but it has some really good stuff there. The museum boatshop is also an interesting place. They restore old time boats such as an ancient cuban fisherman launch, and a variety of traditional small craft.

The museum and its members put on the annual Florida West Coast Small Craft Festival. The festival is about as much fun as you can have messing around with traditional boats. A couple of years ago the guest speaker at the festival banquet was the curator of some kind of Bahamian museum or historical society. I do not recall his name or contact information. If anyone is interested in tracking down this information resource, contact Roger Allen at the Manatee Museum. Roger himself will know a lot about the Bahama Smacks and Abaco dinghys. He can surely put us in contat with the curator dude. You can phone the museum to find Roger. Not even a toll call from Sarasota. That'll get the search rolling. The museum and its members are also a chapter of the TSCA (Traditional Small Craft Association). There is also an affiliated group of boat nuts who frequent Lewis Boatworks. It is not really a boatworks but a bevy of crude shelters on the riverbank where they build prodigious numbers of small craft. It is not a commercial operation but just a place for amateurs to build boats, tell lies, and drink beer. They also do monthly messabouts up and down the Florida west coast. Dave Lewis is the major Domo there and his E-mail is Skipjack@tampaBay.rr

 

Thanks for all the great info Messabout...I've heard of Lewis Boatworks...I know the old mantaee Historical village in Bradenton had an small but active boatworks set up much like a 19th century boatyard and had a steam-powered lathe last time I was there and some other cool stuff..not sure if that is affiliated with Lewis boatworks or not but I think heard that the it may have been incorporated into the Manatee Maritime Museum....it would make sense I guess... Anyways..I'd love to get up to Cedar key one of these days for the small-boat get-to-gether....I checked out all the pics from this years though a while back...maybe it was the year before...looking forward to seeing the Manatee Maritime Museum in a huge way here in a few weeks...I grew up in No.Virginia and my old man was a WWII navy vet who took us to every Maritime museum in the northeast during the years we grew up...Maritime museums are neat places. and they are probably a big reason I'm into boats to this day since we never owned a boat growing up... I can't wait to get up to Pensacola when theirs is finished too since my brother is living there half the year these days...Thanks again for all the info and links...the pics are all belize smacks from the early British days...the last pic lower right is a quarantined Cuban smack that was being held in the harbor...I should add these pics came from the Ambergris Cay Historical Association website..hope they dont mind...

 

I am very late in getting to this thread, mainly because I exhausted my desire for a sharpie some time ago. I did "design" a 30 footer some 20 years ago that had tandem centerboards to avoid one of the interior problems of sharpies. The forward one was under the V berths and the aft one was under the cockpit with only a small intrusion into the cabin.

Since that time I have sailed on numerous sharpies, with the largest being a 36 footer from Chapelle. These cured me of a desire for any sharpie in the traditional form. Also included was a NIS22 and and a NIS31. While these are faintly recognizable as sharpies, they are far removed from the traditional form and can provide some measure of cruising comfort. The NIS31 and it's larger sister the NIS40 can be ideal cruisers for their size. They are built light and provided with significant ballast which allows some practical headroom. Neither characteristic is part of the traditional sharpie profile. The Chapelle 36 footer still had only crawling room inside the cabin which was dominated by the centerboard.

On a practical note, I sold my plans for a NIS26 and bought a used S27.9 daggerboard sloop for well under the cost of building my 30 footer and sailed away. I have yet to sail on any sharpie of any close relation to the traditional form that I thought offered a reasonable alternative to more common sailboats available.

Not meant to be argumentative at all. Just a record of one sailor's path from infatuation to disappointment. Sounds like some similar dealings with the distaff side of humanity over my early years Fortunately both journeys have turned out to the good with both boats and the fairer sex.

 

Thanks for the overview of your experiences and changing attitudes over the years. And glad to hear your journeys in multiple fields have turned out well....

I still think a sharpie is suitable for my needs, because I'm planning to sail the lakes and lagoons of the Colorado River. I want a trailorable boat and a beachable boat; I want a boat that won't snap off a keel or dagger board if it hits a patch of shallow water. I don't need a cabin as living space or respite from a cold climate; it'll be mostly storage, sleeping room, and privacy for a head. Most of my time will be spent in the cockpit, or ashore with the boat pulled up on a beach.

And I definitely won't be doing any passage-making. Come nighttime we'll beach or anchor, make sure the appropriate lights are shining, and hit the sack.

 

Troy...i'm curious if you ever considered a smaller boat then...given that you don't need alot of the features that a 30-footer normally brings to the table...seems like you could build a smaller 23-25 footer with alot of the features you are after and have an easier-cheaper to build boat that is easier to trailer through mountain passes...looking forward to seeing what design you eventually decide on and see pics of her build...not trying to dissuade you from your vision...I have a vision of how I want my 20-footer and a design envelope/retro-fit schedule for her that many would find to be way to much trouble to bother with...most would say get a bigger boat...etc..so I get that..I guess the trailerablity question in the mountains would be my biggest concern with a design like yours...unless I had a real big truck..which alot of people do...

 

Yes, I've considered all sorts of boats. I think I can get more boat for less money and less work with a sharpie than with anything else I've looked at. I also want shoal draft, and a pivoting centerboard that stands a chance of surviving if it grounds.

I want enough cabin for two couples to sleep out of the weather, and it's hard to get even comfortable sitting room in a smaller flat-bottomed boat, without the cabin sticking up like a wart on a hog.

I also want something that will scoot across the water in a hurry, when I want to button it up and go out to play in the afternoon breezes. The longer the boat, the faster.....

I don't plan on pulling my boat through many mountains, if any. And for a tow vehicle I have my old CJ5 Jeep, with some decent torque.

I like the looks of sharpies too; that obviously plays into it....

Remember that a 30' sharpie really isn't really a big boat; it's just a long one. I'm looking at probably 4000 lbs displacement max, a seven or seven and a half foot beam, and a draft somewhere between eight and twelve inches. There are a lot of 23' boats with more beam, more draft, more freeboard and more displacement....that are a whole lot harder (and more expensive) to build.

What I'm after is a plain and simple boat. It'll be built in a workmanlike manner, because I'm a skilled woodworker and carpenter and don't build garbage, but it isn't going to be fancy. And I want a weekender, not a floating vacation home or blue water passage maker; that simplifies things. It'll probably have a fold-down shelf for a portable stove, along with space to stash a BBQ grill to set up on shore. It'll have an ice chest; a dishpan for a kitchen sink; a Porta-Potty with a curtain around it for a head. Electical power will probably be limited to a couple of 12v marine batteries to power running lights, cabin lights, maybe a very small fan or two for warm nights, and an inverter for my laptop. I might make a cubbyhole to stash my little Honda generator in, so I can bring it out and fire it up for special occasions or to charge the batteries.

I don't plan any cabin heating. I am a spoiled Californian, you know....if it's too cold to stay comfortable in a sleeping bag or under a couple of blankets, it's too damn cold to be sailing.

But the boat will have a full-sized V-berth, settee berths that are large enough for adults to sleep in without scrunching up, and enough cockpit for me and my guests to sprawl out in.

I'll probably put a very small outboard in a motor well. But I don't plan on using it much, because I'm not going to be hanging around marinas and high-traffic areas any more than absolutely necessary.

 

Sounds like you have a good plan and know exactly what kind of bird you want...I wonder if anyone else has done one with a similar vision...as a trailerable cabin camper...
It seems like you will have quite alot of room ...Maybe I can't visualize it right......Sharpies are perfect for a light coastal camp-cruiser ...cabin or open boat verisons both... In comparison, I can't beach my 20-footer..though at 15" she gets close...but right now I am willing to trade beach-ability for cabin space...Our boats are similar in beam...7-7 1/2 foot...if only as far as the beam that entails our "roomy and significant walk-around cabin space" if you follow ...though one man should be able "creep around" far more area "forward" in a sharpie of course and abaft too.
I like sharpies ...their lean,long lines and speed, their ease of build, their salty looks.. The only drawback might be that I am wary of the height of the centerboard trunks I have seen in many small cruiser designs under 32' or so with flush CB's...not just sharpies. They all tend towards a high CB trunk right in the midst of the cabin to accommodate the keel .If you happen to be able to post a pic/drawing if you can...maybe I am exaggerating...I have seen one or two 19 or 20-foot flat bottom boats like mine online...that have managed to tuck away the keel completely and done it without a huge doghouse in the middle of the cabin...but it still seemed like the doghouse dominated the cabin somewhat...I can't remember the models.
I know a good (not overly "dog-housy")flush keel design must be possible with a 22-23 foot sloop and certainly should not be an issue with a 30' sharpie with the right design...
as for camper features..btw... I am also going to use a plain old plastic dish pan instead of a sink... I cut my sink out.... (it was plastic anyway)...The area where it was I will cover ...and it will become a counter to place things when cooking ...then maybe I'll install a magazine rack against the cabin wall that backs it...Maybe I'll want a sink, a generator, the whole nine yards, and a bigger boat someday but as for my needs right now I have plenty of 1 gal. jugs for my water and saltwater/local source for cleaning dishes with a final rinse in good water only. They are great for stashing and trimming ballast and easy to bring into the island campsite or what have you....
Just below the rim of the new " counter" (where the sink was) I have cut out a flat oval for a silverware tray to go...with a teak strip "stop" to keep the silverware tray from sliding out. I am aiming for as much comfort as I can pack into a 20-foot boat...make no mistake...that's why I have made and am making many ergonomic changes..may not work..we'll see...I think comfort in a boat has to be a prime concern after seaworthiness...that's just me...Mine will be hopefully be very comfy for one camper and at least reasonably comfy for another to tag along...beyond that...it's a daysailer only...hopefully able to ship a max. of 4-5 people sitting here and there on an afternoon cruise without excess discomfort...I may have to revise things of course but seems a reasonable expectation for her at present.
Good luck with your plans...I think she'll be a gem...and keep us posted...

 

Here's a new 35 foot egret type boat from Ruel Parker with 5'6" headroom (if I can post the attachment)

 

And there's a plastic pseudo sharpie on the market they're calling a Presto 30, but it seems like the freeboard is a little too high to be a real sharpie:
http://www.ryderboats.com/index.html

 

I bought Ruel Parker's Sharpie Book years ago. At the time I wasn't really that interested in the designs he presented, because he concentrated on the small end of every type he presented, and didn't seem to have that many plans that would be applicable to a cruiser. And after looking specifically at his version of Egret, I decided I had more trust in Woodenboat's reconstruction by....damn, I've gone brain-dead. Can't remember who drew it for them.....

But now that I'm headed towards the building stage, I really would like to have the Sharpie Book handy, to study Parker's details on plywood construction vs. traditional planking. And I can't find the blasted thing. I have no idea where it went; my books don't normally disappear. I finally gave up, and ordered another copy of it online today.

 

To quote Wikipedia, "there are limits as to what can be done before the boat becomes something other than a sharpie."