Large sharpie for the Adriatic

Igor,
I wonder if you've seen Skillygalee. According to Bolger, in 30-Odd Boats, it was designed for a guy who wanted a shoal draft Burgundy. He was also an admirer of Egret. In the pictures below, it seems to me that the freeboard is a bit higher than it is in Bolger's drawing. I wouldn't be surprised if the real boat had been built that way. Or maybe it's just that the boot topping in Bolger's drawing creates an illusion of lower freeboard. Also, in one of the pictures, the boat seems to be floating a bit higher than in the drawing.
http://thegreatsea.homestead.com/files/woodwind_adolphus.jpg
http://thegreatsea.homestead.com/files/under_sail.jpg

 

I have not seen that one before. What do you think would be the advantages of Bolger's boat compared to the ones drawn by Parker or Oughtred?

 

Thought I'd show you some more informative images of Skillygalee. Please excuse the poor scans, the crooked angles, etc.

 

I haven't cruised much at all, so my opinion on the advantages and disadvantages doesn't mean all that much. However, I can report some information from Bolger's book.

Skillygalee is supposed to be 29 feet long, with a beam of 7 feet, and a draft of 1.5 feet with the centerboard up. With the board down, it's supposed to draw 5.25 feet. The displacement is given as 5,000 lbs, including 1,000 lbs of internal ballast. I guess you'll need a calculator to get a good grip on those numbers in units you're used to using.

Bolger wrote that the Skillygalee was basically an enlarged version of his Black Skimmer*, which he said could outsail Chappele's version of the Egret. He wrote that the Egret shared "all the weaknesses" of his (Bolger's) Pointer design, which he complained was tender. Skillygalee (I hate the name!) had an off=centerboard, which is supposed to be much less in the way than the centerboard trunk in the Egret. Judging by the drawings, the sides are plywood. It's supposed to be assembled like one of his "instant boats", which he says goes faster than methods used on more complex shapes. The bottom is glued cross planking. Bolger suggests using "soft, damp cedar with the annual rings laid the right way". The concern is that, if enough trouble isn't taken, it might leak a bit. I imagine that a plywood bottom would be ok, though apparently that has a bunch of different disadvantages.

Some of the used book places list "30-Odd Boats" from time to time, if you want a better look. I don't know if anything like that shows up in your libraries, but they do around here. Then again, this is Massachusetts, and Bolger lived in Gloucester, Massachusetts. For all I know, he lived there all his life. Phil Bolger and Friends still seems to be in business, so maybe you can order a full set of plans.

Keep in mind that Bolger did dozens of sharpie designs. More than a dozen, depending on just how you count, in Boats with an Open Mind alone.

--------

*Which you can find at instantboats.com

 

Thank you very much for the info, the scans are of pretty good quality too.
As I can see the Skillygalee has less flare (almost square) than traditional sharpies, the rudder with skeg neccesitates stern-hung outboard, speaking from experience such arrangement is not the most useful in reasonable swell as the prop lifts and ventilates, outboard in a well though is harder to build and design works much better in that regard.

It also departs from double-endedness and all of its properties regarding seaworthiness (though i am not sure how much of it is plain myth.)
Where Skillygalee could win is the load carrying capacity compared to classic Egret.

Skillygalee is also 5000lb, 1000lb of it being ballast, the hull of Parker's Egret is 2500lb with 1000lbs of ballast.

Sharpies and all the info on the type is non-existent in my part of Europe so all the info I can get here is more than welcomed.

 

Speaking of information about sharpies, have you read "The Migrations of an American Boat Type", by Howard Chapelle?:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Migrations Of An American Boat Type, by Howard I. Chapelle. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29285/29285-h/29285-h.htm

I'm pretty sure you can find a bunch of sharpie designs and articles in various archives of Forest and Stream, The Rudder, Motorboating (yes, as I recall the covered some sailboats), and Yachting. I can't remember if they're at Archive.org, Google Books, Gutenberg (as above) or other places.

 

I once drew a sharpie which had a "V" bottom and a pointed stern.
It was intended as a minimum ocean sailing boat with minimal draft. It was to have long, shallow bilge keels which would be mounted to the flats of the "V" section.

Its chine swept up at the bow to the bottom of the bow post, which would start a few inches above the WL. Once past amidship, the chine levelled out to meet the immersed stern post.

The idea was that that the stern would be slower than the bow, so in rough downwind conditions the boat would be less likely broach.

The pointed stern would certainly make construction easier, but when I did stability calculations, I found it robbed the boat of a lot of initial stability. She would be saddled with a small rig, on top of having to be a ketch (to keep the masts out of the living area).

The stern on this design would be just as high as the bow, which may make anchoring from the stern possible.

This boat would by no means be a performer.

There doesn't seem to be much evidence that a pointed stern boat is more seaworthy than a squared off one. And the pointed stern comes at the cost of less initial stability per maximum beam, or fuller ends, or both.

The only advantage I found from this design choice was that the boat would be quite unstable while upside down, even with modest ballast.

In his later designs, Phil Bolger started squaring off the bows of his sharpies. He also tended to fly the bow post ever higher, so his later boats of this type tended to resemble scows.

 

Probably the v bottom added to the pointed ends robbed the initial stability even more.

Would the bilge keels dampen the roll of the boat downwind?
I have seen a video of the Egret (most likely the woodenboat's version built in GRP) sailing downwind and rolling quite severely.

I do not mind the roll that much but it terrifies my girlfriend and one of the reasons why I want sharpie is the assumption that the flat bottom with hard chines would roll less (that rhytmical persistent roll) than traditional hull shapes.

Going multihull route would be the most obvious choice but my berth will not fit one of those.
There are trimarans with folding amas though but those will not fit my wallet.

 

Bolger wrote a fair bit about his expertise in sharpies, but the peeople who actually designed modern racing sharpie types did the opposite of what Bolger said, and their boats went well.

We all know that racing is not the same as cruising, but in cruising it's very rare to get boats of different design but similar dimensions side by side, all of them being driven by sailors of known and similar expertise. In racing it happens a lot. Not one of the sharpie-style racing designs has the bow knuckle above the waterline. At least one of them (the 12 Sq Mtre Sharpie, a Nonpariel type design) is famous for its excellent high-wind handling. Uffa Fox tried to replace it with a boat more in the Bolger style (less deadrise and more rocker forward) and it was a notorious flop.

 

Having the bow knuckle above the waterline equals better turning ability and downwind it is less prone to broaching (or the bow steering) but trade off is slapping at anchor and generally slamming upwind, do I have this right?

 

what I would like to remind everybody on: the price of the materials for the build is closely linked to the deplacement of a boat. Two boats of the same displacement will have very similar costs to build. & as a lot of the labour to build a boat goes into the finishing (sanding&sanding&sanding...) the difference in time required will not differ all that much if the boat has one or three chines. I don't see any particular difficulty in the building of the board of the birvidic: the lead seems to be made up of single layers of lead-sheets, no casting required.
If a boat that is not-self-righting &/or can be swamped at high angles of heel is conducive to "laid-back-cruising" is very much a personal matter (we rtw-ed in either type-the selfrighting one -that was laid-back,...well, compared...)

 

btw: files for CNC-cutting of all the parts - THAT is what speeds construction up! The opposite would be a boat that has to be lofted

 

another worthy self-to-build project:
AVIATEUR 5.70m https://hensevalyachtdesign.jimdofree.com/monocoques-6-50m/aviateur-5-70m/

 

You are right about the weight/displacement being the factor driving the cost proportionately.

What we somewhat agreed on is that the modern rig on the Birvidic will cost much more than two wooden sticks on the sharpie type.

Regarding the CNC cut files, I think this could cut the building time in half for some people and it is one of the things that makes Birvidic very attractive to me. I actually take a peek at it almost every day

The Egret is decked boat with self draining cockpit if built per Parker's plans. She has got more freeboard than most of the sharpies and her downflooding angle should not be low.

If built with 1000 pounds of lead ballast centered on the cabin sole she should pop back up from 90 degree knockdown and her shape + wooden spars guarantees she will not be happy spending much time turtled, as long as the hatches do not leak much.

Birvidic on the other hand is self-righting as long as the board is deployed.
If she broaches downwind with her board up she will most likely turtle, and having the low house and wide flat decks she is going to stay that way.
Compromises

*Having one more look at the Birvidic its board is most likely designed to stay down as long as the sails are up, no matter the course.

Probably shoud be lifted only for trailering, anchoring the shoal coast or motoring.

 

"board" definitely should only be lifted in sheltered waters & for draft-reasons, not for reducing wetted surface reaching! Imho it is a "lifting keel" much more than a "board". Rigg will be more expensive than a sharpies, how big a percentage of the whole project I cannot say.
The way I see it the allure of the sharpie for its proponents is in the aesthetics & as most things in boating "irrational" & emotional. So whoever is in love with the sharpie & its look-he should go for it. It will come at the price of "versatility" of the fruit of their labours though.
more worthy projects here: Stock boat plans and designs by Dudley Dix Yacht Design https://www.dixdesign.com/designs.htm
like
Didi 23 radius chine plywood boat plans https://www.dixdesign.com/23didi.htm
Didi 29 Retro radius chine plywood boat plans https://www.dixdesign.com/29Retrodidi.htm
or for the "retro addicted": Cape Canso 23 boat plans https://www.dixdesign.com/cc23.htm