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Boat Profile A Selway Fisher sharpie From Issue November 2022 W hen I was in Sea Scouts in high school, I got to sail a Lightning, and it became the standard by which I have since measured all small sailboats. I have always wanted a small sailboat of my own but, as awesome as a Lightning is, it is too big and heavy for me to manage on my own. I had grown to hate dealing with trailers and stayed masts, and wanted something I could transport on top of the car. For many years, I searched for the perfect boat, keeping a growing file of likely designs. I found some promising candidates in Reuel Parker’s The Sharpie Book and Howard Chapelle’s American Small Sailing Craft , but I discovered the boat of my dreams when I saw the lovely Drake 13 Sharpie from Selway Fisher. There are three Drake sharpies: an 11-footer, an 18-footer, and (for my needs) the “just right” 13′ boat. I ordered plans and they arrived from England, folded in a packet. While the four pages of drawings and eight pages of instructions are clear and well-detailed, it proved very helpful for me to have built a few boats: a Bolger Cartopper rowboat and a 13′ Pete Culler Butternut double-paddle canoe. I studied the Drake 13 plans carefully and decided on a few changes. I would want to sit on the bottom of the boat, which meant changing the centerboard shown in the drawings to a daggerboard for its shorter trunk. I also preferred a balance lugsail to the standing lug in the plans because the balance lug is so tunable and maybe more importantly, I think it looks cooler. The sail plan I drew has about 7 sq ft more sail area, an increase of about 10 percent. Douglas Fowler made the sail to the drawings I provided. The plans offer options for building plywood-on-frame or stitch-and-glue. While the original design calls for two thwarts and a centerboard, this boat has a stool for rowing and a daggerboard for sailing. Sealed compartments in the ends provide flotation. Paul Fisher, the designer, assured me that the modifications I had sketched would work but, just in case, I made the daggerboard slot longer than necessary so that I could adjust the center of lateral resistance if I got the sailing balance of the boat wrong. That, and the adjustability of the balance lugsail position, would also give me the ability to fine-tune the balance. I shaped a piece of closed-cell foam that fits in the daggerboard slot vertically to hold the daggerboard in place and then fits into the trunk horizontally to fill the slot when rowing. The plans offer two construction methods: plywood planking over frames and stringers or stitch-and-glue. I opted for stitch-and-glue because I know the system well and it creates a very strong hull that’s light in weight and provides a clean, smooth interior that’s easily maintained. The instructions provided with the drawings note that plywood can be either marine or exterior grade, but I didn’t want to use fir exterior plywood as it checks badly unless covered with fiberglass. I ordered five sheets of Joubert okoume plywood. I butt-jointed the plywood pieces with ’glass on both sides instead of using butt straps or cutting scarf joints, as shown in the drawings. On the lengthened sheets, I laid out the panel shapes with a series of penciled tick marks according to the measured drawings. I connected those points into fair curves using a flexible batten and then cut out the panels. Stitching the four panels together—bottom, two sides, and transom—rapidly turned them into something resembling a beautiful little boat. The 4′ 6″ beam provides a good oarlock span for 8′ oars. The hull’s side and bottom panels are 6mm (1/4″) plywood; the transom, rudder, and daggerboard trunk are 9mm (3/8″). I designed and added some 9mm frames and I also added some 3″-wide chine-to-chine transverse strips flat on the bottom to stiffen it up a little bit and provide some depth for screws to mount my foam-pad tiedowns. The daggerboard is doubled 9mm plywood with carbon-fiber inserts to stiffen it. I applied fiberglass tape to the joints but did not cover the entire surface of the interior or the exterior with ’glass cloth. This has worked well, and the plywood is still in good shape after three seasons of use. I think I saved about 8 to 10 lbs of weight this way as well as a lot of labor. Spruce spars are specified in the instructions, but I used fir from the lumberyard. I picked through the pieces carefully and then hung them from the ceiling of my shop for a few months to let them air dry. I tested the spars by shaping them and then jumping on them with 6″ blocks holding up each end. I managed to break one of them. Better to fail in the shop than while out sailing! I spent about three months, full-time, building the Drake 13 and launched it on a cool spring afternoon. At 105 lbs (stripped of oars, spars, and rigging), it’s fairly easy to get it on top of the car and to drag it across a sandy beach to the water. I use two 3′ x 8′ pieces of carpet to protect the bottom from abrasion while dragging the boat over the ground. The rudder has a fixed blade with a horizontal bottom edge aligned with that of the skeg. For a better purchase on the water, the plans provide an option for adding a drop-down blade and the author added the horizontal wings seen here. I t takes about 30 to 40 minutes from cartop to sailing. That may seem somewhat slow, but that’s a result of being cartopped: the hull is transported bare, and everything needed on the boat must be packed in the car. Trailering would significantly shorten the preparation time at the ramp. The oar length for the Drake is not specified in the plans. Mine are 8’ long and I use Gaco oarlocks , which are strong and smooth working. With moderate aerobic effort, I can row the Drake at about a 2-1/2-knot reading on the GPS. Ramping up to 80 percent effort increases speed to about 3 knots, and an all-out sprint might see 3-1/2 or a bit more. On my first outing with the Drake, christened GREBE after the diving birds I see where I do most of my sailing, there was a sprightly wind. Once I got out on the water and all the various lines were adjusted, I sheeted in on a beam reach and the Drake leapt forward, soon sending spray over the gunwales and making that go-fast hum sailors love. The overall sensation was one of lightness, nimbleness, and speed. The Drake is quick and fun under sail, and I’ve seen a top speed of about 6 knots sail-surfing down a motorboat wake. Windward performance is satisfactory—the Drake tacks through 80 to 90 degrees. Cranking on the downhaul helps shape the sail well for windward work. When sailing, kneeling on the bottom makes it easier to look forward while having a hand on the tiller. During my first season of sailing GREBE, I found coming about difficult and often stalled halfway through a tack. To address the tacking performance, I added an endplate to the rudder to make it more effective without anything extending below the level of the skeg. (The instructions include details for a steel or aluminum drop-plate rudder blade that would give the rudder a deeper grip.) The endplate helped a lot. Falling off a little before the turn to build a little momentum and backwinding the sail are also very helpful in getting through a tack. That flat bottom pays off when the boat is beached and sits nice and flat on the shore, but it can pound in waves. While sailing, I can shift my weight to settle one of the hard chines down into the water and lessen the impact with waves. Sailing on a run is a joy and jibing is made considerably more pleasant by the natural cushioning effect of the yard and boom squeezing together, allowing the boom to come across without a bang. In light air, I can center the tiller, lock it, and steer the boat by shifting my weight gently from side to side—pretty cool! The plans call for a 65-sq-ft standing lug rig with the tack set to the mast. The author opted for a balance lug where the tack sets forward. On one blustery day I had an opportunity to practice a capsize recovery. An unintentional jibe put the boat over with the mast and sail resting on the water’s surface. The boat righted easily—a little pull on the end of the daggerboard was enough. The aft flotation compartment supported me while I crawled back in over the transom. The sail should have come down to lessen the chances of the boat capsizing again. Although the stern and bow flotation compartments kept the gunwales above the water’s surface, the daggerboard trunk needed the board and the foam filler in place to prevent the ingress of water while bailing. About 15 minutes of adrenaline-fueled work with a large bailer removed enough water from the cockpit to ready the boat for rowing to shore. The longer centerboard trunk in the plans would need some similar way to seal its opening. John Larkin recently retired from a career designing bicycle helmets and returned to his first loves: painting, drawing, building boats, and sailing. He lives in Moscow, Idaho, and sails primarily on Cascade Lake, a reservoir in central Idaho. Drake 13 Sharpie ParticularsHull depth, ’midship/1′ 4″ Draft, centerboard up/6″ Draft, centerboard down/2′ 6″ Sail area/65 sq ft Dry weight/approx. 120 lbs Capacity/3 to 4 adults Plans for the Drake 13 , printed or PDF, are available from Selway-Fisher Design for £65 (approx. $72 US). Is there a boat you’d like to know more about? Have you built one that you think other Small Boats Magazine readers would enjoy? Please email us! Share this article Join The ConversationWe welcome your comments about this article. If you’d like to include a photo or a video with your comment, please email the file or link. Comments (2)Been looking for a first boat to build and the Drake 13 looks like the one. Will be ordering the plans. Walt Would this be a good boat for a 220-lb person and an 8-hp motor? Leave a Reply Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Stay On Course More From This IssueFrom The Editor n 2009, I kayaked the 25-mile-long south coast of Menorca, the northernmost of Spain’s Balearic Islands. I had intended to circumnavigate the island but there was a strong northwest wind,... Selway-Fisher’s 13’ sharpie is a big boat in a small package and accommodates all the gear I need for overnight camping trips; I could probably pack enough in GREBE for… L’ArkWe wanted a relatively small trailerable boat that was suitable for overnight travel. It had to have a galley, a head, and berths for at least two. I also wanted… Two Tramps and a LadyAfter spending a night at a canal-side campground in Villeneuve-les-Béziers, it was already 80°F by 9 a.m. the next morning. Ben and I each set a now faded, flattened, and… French WhippingWe start the whip about 3″ from the end of the tiller, leaving room for a tiller-extension fitting should we decide to add one later. The first half hitch is put… Product Reviews DeWalt’s Cordless Power PlanerThe belt-driven, twin-blade cutter head spins at 30,000 rpm, with a minimum speed of 15,000 rpm. DeWalt’s 20V brushless technology increases torque to the motor to keep rpm constant as… Inside, there are two mesh pockets on the left side, the upper one zippered and the lower one open-topped to hold long items. The mesh provides a good view of… Reader Built Boats AL DEMANY CHIMANAL DEMANY CHIMAN was relaunched in July 2021 and on the day following the launch Tim, Helena, and Aidan went paddling at Mason Neck State Park, situated in a backwater… More Boat ProfilePooduck SkiffThe Pooduck, at 12′10″, is 20″ longer than White’s Shellback, but they are otherwise quite similar and Dow’s book--with its step-by-step instructions for the glued plywood lapstrake construction, outfitting the… Cape Henry 21After years of building and sailing open camp-cruiser sailboats, my wife, Anne, and I had become less enchanted with crawling around under a tent at anchor. Spending time in our… Pete Markantes and his son Jason built DAWN PATROL for hunting, crabbing, and fishing in the waters of the Pacific Northwest. Their Honker is one of Sam Devlin’s suite of… The Norwalk Islands 18 and Its CousinsThe Bruce Kirby–designed 18’ Norwalk Islands Sharpie is the latest and smallest in a family of boats ranging all the way to 43’. Subscribe Today!Become a subscriber today and you’ll recieve a new issue every month plus unlimited access to our full archive of backlogged issues. Already a subscriber? Sign In Subscribe For Full AccessFlipbooks are available to paid subscribers only. Subscribe now or log in for access. Boat Plans | Books | CD's | Downloads Catalogue Of Sharpie Designs$ 30.00 DescriptionThe Sharpie Catalogue includes 30 sailing sharpie designs and 3 power sharpies. Construction is plywood/epoxy/fabric of the simplest kind. These vessels are intended to be built by amateurs in the garage or back yard. Most are flat-bottomed; a few are V- or arc-bottomed; all sailboats are centerboarders. The larger sharpies can be built in steel or aluminum. Virtually all the sharpie designs are adaptions of traditional American working craft. Sharpies are fast and surprisingly weatherly, and terrific fun to sail. Because they are relatively narrow and light, even large sharpies can be trailored more easily than any other hull type. Only the largest sharpies can be comfortably lived in–but they make great camp boats and weekend cruisers for the whole family. Construction methods are described in THE SHARPIE BOOK by Reuel B. Parker. The book includes a history of sharpies and traditional construction methods. This Catalogue includes inserts of new sharpie designs at no additional cost, like our MAXI-TRAILERABLE CRUISING SHARPIES. . There are no reviews yet. Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review. 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The Musings of a Hopeless WandererEngaging in the eternal search for the meaning of life...or a good time. Monday, September 3, 2018Tackling moscow by train and boat. Our first full day in Moscow started fairly late since we were still catching up on sleep. Around 1, we finally were able to get our act together and get out the door. We stopped by a cafe to get some breakfast and headed over to the Red Square. Since the festival is going on, we had to go through metal detectors. Once we cleared security, we reached the State Historical Museum which provided an entrance to the Red Square. We walked the length of the Red Square, passing by the Kazan cathedral. Under normal conditions, the Red Square is a large walking area with the State Historical Museum on one end and St. Basil's on the other end. On the sides is the Kremlin wall on one side and then the GUM shopping mall and the Kazan cathedral on the other side. Presently, the walking area has been considerably narrowed and the fesitval grounds occupying a large space between the Kremlin and the mall. We even asked a stranger to take our picture! After walking around the Red Square, we had to leave to meet up with our Metro Tour. Moscow has famously pretty metro stations so metro tours are quite popular. We booked a relatively inexpensive tour through a tour group which met outside of the Red Square. On our way, we passed by the Kremlin gardens and the tomb to the unknown soldier and the eternal flame. We soon met up with our group which, fortunately, was only 5 people. Our guide told us that we were going to visit 8 stations during the 1.5 hour tour. Honestly, a lot of the stations blended in to me so I won't be able to give you a detailed description of all of them. However, I did learn that there are 222 metro stations and the trains come every 2-3 minutes reliably. For that reason, Moscow > DC. One of the first metro stations we visited had bronze statues all over of various depictions. Many of the statues had superstitions tied to them. For example, for a statue of the dog, it's held that if you rub the nose of the dog, you'll have good luck. Consequently, most of the statue is tarnished - except for the nose. I joked to Tomas that they probably rotate the "good luck" portion of the statue to ensure the entire statue gets polished. However, I do remember some of the stations. Novoslobodskaya is a station adorned with stained glass on the walls. There was also Belarusskaya, which paid tribute to Belarus. Another station which name I cannot remember but had pretty mosaics in the ceilings. My favorite station was Komsomolskaya. It's the busiest station and a hub for other connecting trains. It was built during Statlin times and he wanted the station to embody beauty to set a good first impression to Russia. I'd seen pictures of it beforehand since it's the most famous but it's so much more impressive in person. Look at these ceilings! Overall it was a very interesting tour. Not sure of any other city which could offer a metro tour. DC certainly can't... After the tour, we headed back of the hotel to rest for a bit. We had purchased tickets to a tour hour boat down the Moscow river. The tickets were good for any time on any day and the boats left every 20min. We decided to knock the tour out that day and headed over to the pier. We arrived at the pier and saw a boat by the company we had purchased from boarding. We approached and they shook their head and said it wasn't the right boat. So we waited for another boat. Another boat came along by the same company we had purchased from so weapproached them. Again - we were told it wasn't the right boat and the boat we were looking for was coming. A third boat came along which was NOT by the company we had purchased from. By this point, it had been longer than 20min waiting and I was starting to suspect that the correct boat was actually one of the ones which turned us away. We approached the 3rd boat to ask if they knew which boat we should be on. However, when we approached, they waved us aboard without scanning our tickets. So, we boarded the 3rd boat....which was definitely not ours. We settled into an upper deck, open air table to take in the views. We passed by pretty buildings. The somewhat impressive cathedral of Christ the Savior. This random statue. After about hour on the cruise, Tomas remarked that it had been about an hour so we should be turning around soon. I reminded him that we actually had no idea how long this cruise was or where we would be dropped off. Since we were on the wrong boat. Fortunately, it did turn around and took us back to the pier. For dinner, we decided to go to this burger place, Black Star Burger, which our guide told us about. Tomas really liked his - I thought mine was OK. It was a decent size patty with a mountain of Cole slaw on top. We've realized that apparently Russians dislike getting their hands dirty while eating so some restaurants will give out gloves to use. This particular restaurant gave out black gloves. Tomas modeling our dinner. Since little mum has been asking about pictures which show my feet, I assume she wanted to see my new shoes. I recently bought Allbirds which are suppose to be super comfortable walking shoes which you wear without socks and can be washed. I didn't wear them too extensively beforehand, so that was probably my first error. I also didn't bring another pair of good walking shoes, which was likely my second error. The Allbirds were great the first two days without socks. Midway through the third day, my right foot was quite unhappy. Left foot was a trooper. So, now I have a bandaid on the heel of my right foot and wear socks. No comments:Post a comment. |
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Sharpie (boat) Sharpies are a type of hard chined sailboat with a flat bottom, extremely shallow draft, centreboards and straight, flaring sides. They are believed to have originated in the New Haven, Connecticut region of Long Island Sound, United States. They were traditional fishing boats used for oystering, and later appeared in other areas.
Learn about the history and design of Munroes sharpies, a type of round-bilge sailboat that can handle shallow waters and rough seas. Read how these boats combine speed, stability, and seaworthiness with a touch of magic.
John C. Harris, CLC's CEO and a lifelong sharpie fan, designed the Sharpie for his own use on the Chesapeake Bay. Light weight and clean lines yield a boat capable of high average speeds, dinghy-like handling, and great pointing ability. The unstayed cat-ketch rig is efficient and beautiful, and without a jib there are no sheets to handle when ...
The NIS class ranges from 18′ to 31′ and was designed by the late Bruce Kirby, who is best known for creating the globally popular Laser. He deemed his Sharpie-class boats "cruising Lasers for grown-ups.". Kirby's sharpies are flat-bottomed, centerboard cat-ketches with unstayed masts. Prior to getting my hands on a Norwalk Islands ...
Learn from the December 1930 and January 1931 issues of Yachting how to build a sharpie sailboat for under forty dollars. A sharpie is a fast, seaworthy and simple boat that can be sailed in any weather and any place.
John's Sharpie is a modern version of the traditional New England sharpie, a shallow-draft, easy-to-build sailboat. Learn about its design, performance, construction, and see photos and reviews of this 18-foot cat-ketch boat.
The Milford 20 is a modern interpretation of the sharpie type, and was inspired by the Floridays design of noted naval architect Mark Fitzgerald of Thomaston, Maine. ... Sail Area: 150 sq.ft. Displacement: 600 kg. (1300 lbs.) Towing weight: 650 kg. (including trailer) See reviews page for details of magazine reviews ...
Based on the original 28-footer made famous by Commodore Munroe in Florida, this 31.5-foot version offers much better cruising accommodations, although like all sharpies, still minimal for it's size. Reuel said it was the most boat that could be built for the money and pointed out that it would be quick to build, trailerable and yet capable of ...
It takes into consideration "reported" sail area, displacement and length at waterline. The higher the number the faster speed prediction for the boat. A cat with a number 0.6 is likely to sail 6kts in 10kts wind, a cat with a number of 0.7 is likely to sail at 7kts in 10kts wind. KSP = (Lwl*SA÷D)^0.5*0.5
The Sharpie That Got Away. By John C. HarrisMay 2020. The 20-foot sharpie I drew for Bill and Matt. In 2007 my colleagues Bill and Matt, father and son, were looking for a daysailer to build as an evening project. They suggested that a sharpie would be fun. A sharpie is a flat-bottomed sailboat with a single chine, usually fairly narrow.
1965 33' Hershoff Meadowlark Sharpie sailboat for sale in St Petersburg Beach Florida
Seller's Description. Go to Sailing Texas classifieds for current sailboats for sale Norwalk Island Sharpie 23, 1995 Designer: Bruce Kirby Excellent build (1995, well documented) Excellent condition except for deteriorating exterior brightwork No hull leaks, bone dry Self-righting (all inside lead bars under deck total 600 lbs) Tabernacle ...
Sharpie preowned sailboats for sale by owner. Sharpie used sailboats for sale by owner.
Preowned racing, cruising, dailsailer, and multihull sailboats for sale, including Beneteau, Burger , Cal, Catalina, C & C, Cheoy Lee, Columbia, Coronado, Corsair ...
The sail-powered sharpie was a hard-chined, flat bottom, shallow draft vessel, with a centerboard and some flare in the sides. The style spread up and down the Atlantic coast in the 19 th century, according to the noted maritime historian Howard I. Chapelle.
Selway-Fisher's 13' sharpie is a big boat in a small package and accommodates all the gear I need for overnight camping trips; I could probably pack enough in GREBE for a weeklong trip. Building a Drake 13 would be a straightforward project for an experienced builder and a suitable first boat for someone with some woodworking experience. This little sharpie is easy to store and move, even ...
I built this skiff based loosely on several designs in Raul Parker's Sharpie Book. Chesapeake Oyster Skiff, Mississippi River yawl, and Crab skiff. The sail ...
The Sharpie Catalogue includes 30 sailing sharpie designs and 3 power sharpies. Construction is plywood/epoxy/fabric of the simplest kind. These vessels are intended to be built by amateurs in the garage or back yard. Most are flat-bottomed; a few are V- or arc-bottomed; all sailboats are centerboarders. The larger sharpies can be built in steel […]
1979 Marine Innovators 32 Sandpiper Sharpie The Sandpiper 32 Sharpie was inspired by Bill Munroes Sharpie designs, built to be single handedly sailed in shallow water. Her Cat Ketch rig and wish bone booms, combined with rotating masts, allow you to set sail or reduce it by simply rolling the twin sails out or in.
Tackling Moscow by Train and Boat Our first full day in Moscow started fairly late since we were still catching up on sleep. Around 1, we finally were able to get our act together and get out the door. We stopped by a cafe to get some breakfast and headed over to the Red Square. Since the festival is going on, we had to go through metal detectors.
Get warmed up for the World Cup final and see the sights with this awesome set from the legend that is Paul Oakenfold on the #buboat in Moscow.
On this map you can see the details of the longest and most classic of the Flotilla Radisson boat tours: 2. Companies that do boat tours on the Moskva River. There are many companies that do cruises on the Moskva River, but the 4 main ones are: Capital River Boat Tour Company (CCK) Mosflot. Flotilla Radisson.