30' plywood sharpie

You can put any rig on any boat really. I have a 15' LWL design that's been popular lately. It's a gaff sloop, but someone wanted a Bermudian, so this was also drawn. Next was a double headsail request and now it's also a gaff schooner, of which three are under construction currently. A gaff schooner on a 15' LWL boat? Well that's what they wanted. I've seen a 15' LOD boat with three masts, 4 square sails, 2 jibs and a spanker, so who's to say what's too much.

The decisions a client makes can be debated, but eventually someone's going to sign the check. I think the ketch rig is better suited if the sharpie is in need of a low aspect rig, which most are. If you can afford the righting arm leverage, then a yawl is an option, but considering it's height is nearly that of a sloop, you need an especially stable sharpie.

 

Do a gaff main, a boomed working jib and a spritsail mizzen really add up to a higher aspect rig than the average cat-ketch? Two of the three sails are relatively low and small. And a traditional gaff main is pretty much low-aspect by definition, isn't it?

I'm more worried about whether I can get away with an unstayed mainmast, and still make the jib set well enough to be useful.

Merry Christmas, by the way. And thank you, for the time you put into trying to teach people in spite of themselves.

 

The ketch rig has it's sail area divided up more equally among the sticks. This division helps lower the CE and spread out the area laterally, uniformly. Because of this the mizzen mule is bigger and the effects the mizzen itself brings to the table are bigger. Personally, I prefer to sail a yawl for several reasons, but from a practical stand point, I think argument is better made for the ketch.

 

Weight aloft might also be a factor to consider . There need only be a small increase in section for a taller mast so weight wise a sloop is the lightest ,all its sail carried by one mast, a yawl second and a ketch third. Somewhere I read that there is a rating that handicaps sloops the most yawls second ketches third and schooners last.

 

Not a 30' boat, and not sliding into an existing cat, but this is something similar (on the far right):

http://wikiproa.pbworks.com/f/PIYC 2009.jpg

same boat under sail, starting at about 0:25 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkKZI-RCsTU

and here on the beach, starting at about 1:50 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_oVVgSF9io

It started life as a John's Sharpie from CLC. Charlie Jones, the owner, is a professional boatbuilder, so he had done a great job on it, but they found it too tender for extended trips in the usual (high) local winds. Graham Byrnes of B&B Yachts drew the amas for him. Very nice job all round. 10' wide on the water, easy to sail, quite fast. Certainly faster than without the amas, but not in a Tornado's class, of course. Carries a bunch of gear, great for a week's beachcamping. Charlie and Laura have done the Texas 200 in her twice.

K O'N

 

Update on the model

I haven't done as much as I was planning to do. The other day when I was carrying it from my pickup cab into my motor home, my neighbor's dog jumped up on me and knocked it out of my hand. Not on purpose; he's just a big, clumsy, almost grown Rottweiler puppy. Like a lot of Rotts, he's a sweetheart but not the sharpest tool in the shed....

First thing I realized when I picked up the pieces was that I'm never using balsa wood for molds again; all four of them snapped off at the sheer. From now on they'll be plywood, masonite or the like.

So I've been working on the boat freehand, instead of attached to a strongback. "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley"....if I had it to do again, I'd probably put the molds back together and laminate a piece against them, and go back to plan 'A.'

Here's a look at how she's coming, though. As soon as I get the sheer clamps in, I'll start on the V-berth, centerboard trunk and other odds and ends that need to go in before the forward deck and the cabin trunk. The molds will come out as the bulkheads go in....

 

Par , It is probably best to stick with the basic sharpie concept . I have seen a nis31 all dressed up in yacht finish , with an expensive rig . I thought they missed the point .

I think a good basic sharpie could be built using 4 sheets of ply per side, and 2 layers of 5/8 bottom . The center board and rudder could be 3x material drifted together with galvanized rod. It would have decent sitting head room and could be quite roomy . If designed with 1/2 per foot rocker, not to much flair, and a freestanding ketch rig , It could be made reasonably safe for coastal work . I might think of a raised deck cabin , but that starts to get away from the idea of simplicity. If kept simple they be built quickly and cheaply . Just dont try to make them something they are not.

 

Frank, you have the drift of what I'm planning to do. I'm not trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear....

I wasn't attracted to the sharpie concept by the romantic aura of history hanging about it. It got my attention because a sharpie yacht looks like something I can knock out in a workmanlike manner in a reasonable amount of time--without investing my life, my estate and my self-esteem in it. I'd like to get one done, launch it in the lakes of the Colorado River system, and start having fun with it.

I'm not looking for a floating home; I'll settle for something I can hang out in for a weekend. Maybe even for a week or two of vacation, if I get ambitious and the weather's warm enough to bathe in the lake.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that I also happen to love the way the way sharpies look....the plumb stem; the aggressive sheer at the bow sweeping back and down, and up again into an almost delicate stern; with a low freeboard amidships that just cries out for a low cabin trunk to fill it in....

 

Troy, how is your design project going ?

 

Not well, at least at the physical end of it. Apparently, there's some kind of an animal conspiracy afoot to keep me shorebound.

I took the model home with me to work on it over the holidays, and set it on an unused computer table. A cat apparently jumped up onto the table and knocked it off, breaking a chunk out of each side somehow. Or maybe the wife's Pomeranians ran over it chasing the cat, after she came down with it. Then one of the little darlings chewed up the bulkhead I had shaped and ready to install. I'm about ready to take a bb gun to anything with four legs....I put the hull back together again, but there's a little kink at the sheer on the port side. I'm hoping it'll fair out, when it's sandwiched between the gunwale and the sheer clamp.

But I made a little progress, anyway. I figured the deck crown and made a template for all the beams; installed the watertight bulkhead forward; tucked in a V-berth; and built one of the settee berths. As soon as I recut and install the chewed bulkhead, things will pick up a little. I can finish framing and covering the deck, install the cabin sole, furnishings and centerboard trunk, build the cockpit, and start on the cabin trunk. That's going to have to be removable of course, since it's a model, which complicates things a little. The last model I built had a removable cabin top instead, and that didn't work very well.

The main thing I've decided so far is that it was a mistake to let the LOA drift down from 30' to 28'. That two feet translates into a lot of lost space in the cabin and/or the cockpit.

I'll try to get some pictures in the next day or two, to show what progress I've made.

 

Troy thanks for the progress reports. Looking forward to more photos. Chip.

 

stuffed one of the little darlings might make a nice figure head and would also serve as an example to the others
just an idea
B

 

I have been looking at the New Have and North Carolina sharpies . The North Carolina version appears to have fuller more buoyant bow than the New Haven .
I was wondering why this difference, and how it would affect the handling.
My thinking is that for a coastal version a bow more like that of a dory would be better all around , but result in a slower boat .

 

I'll leave it to those who know more about sharpies and traditional eastcoast watercraft to reply but I will say that finding out about all the regional differences in a basic design is very interesting...I will venture to say that here in Florida we were influenced heavily by New England designs as many successful New Englanders were involved with Florida from early times...from Key West, Fernandina/Jacksonville , Pensacola and a few other towns...and so forth..anyways..love the topic of sharpies and early traditional boats, of all nations and regions on the globe really but for North America you can add Canadian Maritimes,Cuban and Bahamian fishing smacks, great lakes and west coast boats,, etc....these traditional boats very heavily deserve their own forum here IMHO...Anybody who wishes to share any info on these types of boats please feel free to do so in whatever thread you can...it sure is nice to read about here and get as much from the great forum that is Boatdesign.net as possible...

 

I think that is a great idea . We could have a history thread running most
of the time ,taking a look at one type at a time . For instance you mentioned the Bahamian smack . They have interested me for some time ,but I have not be able to find much info .