Shag from John Gardner

[sharpie]

A little less than a year ago, Deering6, in this thread, http://www.woodenboatvb.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=55373&highlight=fathom+sharpie, mentioned that he owned and sailed the 20ft version of Shag. How did I miss this opportunity to hear more about this boat? Deering6, if you are lurking out there somewhere, give us sharpie lovers a thrill and tell us about your experiences with this craft. Thanks.

[muscongus]

Hello,
I'm not Deering6, (Jay), but i built that boat and owned and loved it for several years. I'll drop him an email to point this thread out to him.
I'll get some photos together and post them.
Jack

[sharpie]

Jack, that would be wonderful, thanks.

[muscongus]

I have a bunch of print photos, but these are the only digital photos I have. Not a great selection and shot on my old digital Elph, but they show the sharpie.
You can see that I didn't use a traditional leg-o-mutton sharpie rig. I designed a sprit rig, or rather I largely lifted one from a Pete Culler Hampton Whaler design and checked it for balance with the cardboard profile method. I used John Gardners' idea of several potential pivot points in the centerboard case, to leave room to fine tune balance.
It worked out well I think. The masts, especially the main, were pretty heavy, so Jay asked me to build him some hollow ones, which I did last year. When I get an email to him maybe he'll give his impressions of the new masts here.
http://frontiernet.net/%7Emuscongus/BenjaminRiver.jpg
http://frontiernet.net/%7Emuscongus/Sellers.jpg
http://frontiernet.net/%7Emuscongus/Sellers2.jpg
http://frontiernet.net/%7Emuscongus/Sellers3.jpg
http://frontiernet.net/%7Emuscongus/Waquoit.jpg
http://frontiernet.net/%7Emuscongus/Waquoit2.jpg
http://frontiernet.net/%7Emuscongus/Waquoit3.jpg

[sharpie]

Jack, those are very nice, thank you. I have been contemplating using spritsails on Parker's Small Ohio sharpie -- in order to save my back from chunking around 22 foot masts. Thanks for taking the time to share the pics.

You said you owned her for several years. What did you like and not like about her?

[graystork]

Awesome pictures and boat. What did you plank it with? As a former upstate New Yorker it's nice to see that someone from the home of the Adirondack Guideboat can make beautiful sharpies too!

Dave

[muscongus]

The sharpie is planked with fir marine plywood. (I know, I know, haven't I seen the recent threads? Sure it works in practice, but how does it work in theory?) It's sheathed outside with epoxy and Xynol cloth. the framing is oak for the keelson and cypress for the chine logs and the sister keelsons, as well as the framing for the round stern.
The deck is the same, fir ply, xynol sheathed.
Stuart Hopkins (Dabbler Sails) made a fine job of building the sails.
The only real negative was the heavy main mast. Kind of a bear to step. At first I had the main loose footed and boomless. It was a bit hard to set it well. I added a sprit boom, still loose footed and it was much easier to handle.
Frankly, I sold it mostly because I needed the cash!
I had also been wanting something with more potential for camp cruising, with basic cabin for a while though. When I was again flush I bought something made from an unmentionable material, because it was available and I no longer had shop space. (I do still have a small fleet of wooden boats though, so can I still post here?)
It's a great boat, has all the positive characteristics of a sharpie, as well as the types limitations. (can be wet in the wrong chop..)
It makes a pretty nice motor launch too. We had an Evinrude 5hp fourstroke on it. Jay has a smaller motor now I think. The five was kind of heavy.
I'm glad I stretched it to 20', as per John Gardners' suggestion.
I think the sprit rig worked out well too. It would have been fun to sail it with a more traditional sharpie rig, just to compare.
We visited Jay after he'd had the sharpie less than a year, sailing to Sapello Island alongside the sharpie in a Sea Pearl he'd borrowed for us. I think Jay sailed the sharpie better than I ever had.
He has a nice canvas dodger his neighbor sewed for him, a really nice addition.
I still miss this boat sometimes. (well I guess I also miss the dory, pram, friendship sloop.....)
Jack

[sharpie]

Jack, thanks so much for the pics and assessment. Shag has come up for discussion a time or two over the past 5 years, but this is the first I know of a first hand account regarding the boat. Cheers!

[sharpie]

Jay or Jack, I meant to ask you how the boat stood up to its sails in a breeze. As I recall, the 20ft design required about 160 sq ft of sail. That seems quite a bit for such a boat.

[Lazy Jack]

The sharpie is planked with fir marine plywood. (I know, I know, haven't I seen the recent threads? Sure it works in practice, but how does it work in theory?) It's sheathed outside with epoxy and Xynol cloth.

I built my gunning dory the same way except I used AC fir instead of 'marine' and simply poured epoxy into a few small voids, then sheathed in Xynol and epoxy. This is the boat's seventh season and so far no regrets...

[muscongus]

Sharpie,
I can't recall how many square feet the sailplan in the Gardner book
was.The sprit rig I used was 172 sq. ft. (111 main, 61 mizzen)
The boat stood up to this sail well, and required reefing to maintain balance and easy helm before it felt overpressed in other ways. (excess heeling etc.) Keep in mind that my experience is limited mostly to boats I've built. I wanted to sail, I built a Swampscott dory, I learned to sail with that Gunther rig. I wanted a bigger boat, I built the sharpie and learned in my limited way how to sail with the sprit rig and at the same time with a cat ketch. I built a pram for a friend and while I was at it I built one for myself and learned to sail the balanced lug. I now have a boat with a leg-o-mutton with sprit boom.
I just mention this to say, it seemed like a stiff boat to me, but I've not sailed that many boats.
Jack

[tchiffriller]

What do you mean by a stiff boat?