15ft sharpie skiff (R. Parker)

Hi,
I'm in the last stages of building the hull of R. Parker's small plywood
sharpie (15ft Mississippi River Skiff) and wondering if there's been
any other builders.
I would be interested to know how others might
have rigged this small sharpie for sailing and how well it sails.
Thanks,
Denis

 

The boat you describe is no doubt the one in Parkers' Sharpie Book. I have been enamored of that one since I first read the book. It is a bit of a weirdo because it does not know whether it is a banks dory or a sharpie. It has a very narrow bottom and enormous flare in the sides.

I could not bring myself to build one as Parker has drawn. I did build a similar sized boat that has some of the characteristics. Goldilocks is her name. She has a bottom width of 37" and a sheer width of 51 inches. Goldilocks run is straighter than The Mississippi boats' and it has a bit less rocker. She is a little tiddly when you first get into it, but I have learned to trust it. It has a 59 square foot sprit boomed sail that was bought from Dynamite Payson for an attractice price. That sail is common to several of the Bolger boats that Payson is involved with. The boat goes pleasingly well under oar, electric trolling motor or sail. It could handle more sail without too much fear.

Goldilocks, though tender when upright, stiffens reassuringly when heeled. She sails best when the windward chine has cleared the water which is at about 14 degrees. At or about that angle the wetted surface diminishes by around ten percent and the water line lengthens, and the boat goes noticeably faster. Sailed upright, the flat bottom, forward, pounds disconcertingly. When heeled, the pounding goes away and it rides like a baby buggy. The boat is sensitive to fore and aft positioning of the skipper. It can be steered by redistributing ones weight in the boat.

I expect your boat may behave at least similarly. You can probably carry sail up to 80, maybe 90 square feet. More than that, I think will be a handful unless you are into athletics and thrills. Since boats of this sort are trim sensitive, A sail with a fairly short boom would be an advantage on account of weather helm developement when sheeted out a ways. Short foot means that you need more luff height to get some sail area. Long luff is not what you want in a skinny boat like this. That leaves you with fewer options. A lug rig or a gaff rig will likely become the most reasonable options. Goldilocks wanted more lead than was originally calculated, so it was necessary to move the mast foreward.

If you can rig up a temporary, movable, mast bridge it will be worthwhile. Besides the advantage of getting the lead right it will also allow you to experiment with different rigs.

Fair winds

 

messabout,
Thanks for the details of your boat. I'm building mind to the lines provided by the Parker plans. I like the boat for where and how I'm going to use it. I spend many weeks in the summer in PEI, Canada. In PEI, we have lots of shallow waters -- bays, narrow channels, rivers, and mud flats. R. Parker's 15ft Mississippi river skiff only requires 6" of draft and should also be very efficient to row (since I wanted to avoid an outboard).
I will take your advise and experiment with the rigging and sail area. A small gaff sprit rig is probably the way to go (maybe 60 sq. ft. to start). I'm not looking for high performance; just enough sail to move along at a leisurely pace and save on the back.
Regards,
Denis

 

Denis
You have explained where and how your boat is to be used. PEI sounds like a marvelous place to be...in summer that is.

For your purpose I would say that the sail I am using would be ideal. It has a luff of 14' 3" The sprit intersects the mast on the way to the tack and that dimension is 8' 3" . A straight boom of about ten feet will work. The vertical CE of the sail is, geometrically, 72" above the tack. The foot of the sail rises from tack to clew 42". That allows the tack of the sail to be down close to the gunnels but the rise of the foot allows you to see which rock you are about to hit. The boat can be heeled dramaticly without dipping the end of the boom. Arrange for the mast to rotate. When you want to douse the sail just roll it up on the mast. Easy, quick, effective. You can also reef that way if needed. I have been using a two piece composite mast from a sailboard. It is bendy but the sail does not seem to mind. The mast weighs less than 4 pounds, I like that.

I first built a straight boom with snotter etc. That scheme works but the problem is that the lower part of the sail wants to crawl up and over the the top of the boom when on the bad tack with more than 8 knots of breeze. I have now built a half wishbone that solves the problem. The half wishbone fits along the sheer curve of the boat when stowed. Of course a half bone boom will want to flop over if not restrained. You can do it with a topping lift but that is not my choice. I built a half round yoke that fits the mast. Sort of like a piece of pipe split down the centerline. The yoke is about 10" long and it has a tab on the after side that accepts the flat plates attached to the front of the boom. The attachment is a pin or bolt that allows the boom to swing up or down as desired but not to rotate along its' centerline. With this arrangement you do not use a snotter. Instead, you use an outhaul to shape the sail. This idea is not my own. It came from Stuart Hopkins the Dabbler sails guru. You may know that Dabbler makes sails for traditional boats as a specialty. They are superb and appropriately expensive. As previously posted I bought my sail from Payson. That was partly because of price but mostly because Payson is a particularly pleasant and helpful person. The sail is actually made by Bohndell in Rockland Maine. Not as jazzy as the Dabbler sail but perfectly suitable for your purpose and costs considerably less.

The sail has a geometric center at 33"aft of the mast. I ended up with 9" lead from the theoretical CLE of the boat. It could use a little more.

Best of luck with your project.

Gene