Little Egret: an Egret-style day sailer

[johnno]

I’m coming up to retirement, and around January this year I got rid of a couple of old 50s Herons. It didn’t take long for the ‘I’m boatless’ feeling to strike, and when it did, I suddenly realised I would soon have the time to build a boat instead of buying one, as I’d done in the past.

That revelation was quickly followed by the second even more interesting thought, and that was that I didn’t have to build a boat that had been built before, I could build whatever I liked.

Not long after I first subscribed to WB, there was that great Bill Schwicker article on the Egret replica he built (WB 56, Jan-Feb 1984), with a magic photo of it sailing across the Florida shallows.



That image has stuck in my brain for more 25 years, and the waters here in Queensland’s Great Sandy Straits, where I live part time and flyfish, are a close replica of the Florida flats. What I wanted was a twenty odd foot version of Bill’s boat.

For months I searched high and low, pretty much in vain, for plans of what I was after. Even Schwicker’s own 19’ Sharpie had a round stern and was not what I wanted. I must have collected a hundred or so shots of sharpies off the web, and a few plans, but all were flat or round sterned.

Then by chance I came across an article comparing the lines of a certain hull with those of Egret. If I had guessed where I might eventually find plans I would have said somewhere in the south eastern states of USA, but low and behold, the author of this article lived nearby, and was a boat designer. Strangely, he lived two hours inland from the coast, but near a large lake.

As the planets started to align, I remembered a friend from up at the Sandy Straits had built a lovely strip planked boat last year (I went for a sail in it over Christmas) and he mentioned the designer lived inland not far from us. After a quick check with my friend that this boat designer was an ‘ok’ bloke, I rang him. His name is Ross Lillistone, and it turns out he has quite a reputation as a small boat designer.

With a little trepidation, I gave him a ring, told him with little introduction (I thought it best just to launch into my dream) about my desire to build a twenty foot version of Egret, and to my great delight he confessed something. I can’t remember his exact words but they went something like this. ‘You know, as I sit here in my studio, I have two pictures of boats on the wall, one of which was going to be probably the last boat I will build for myself. The two pictures have stayed there because I can’t make up my mind. After talking to you, I realise I’ve harboured the same thoughts about designing a smaller Egret, and I think that’s what I’d really like to build’.

And so has started a magical journey. You can read Ross’s more pragmatic account of the beginning of this tale on his blog, and it’s an excellent and proper account of the design journey so far. http://www.baysidewoodenboats.com.au/

Last week I bought some Kokoda marine ply, and today I tried my hand at cutting the scarfs to make myself some 6 metre long 9mm sheets for the sides. Tomorrow I’ll have a go at the cutting the scarfs for the12mm bottom sheets. I guess this means that I’ve officially started, and can make my first rather long-winded post here. I promise from here on there’ll be more pics than words (once I learn how to post the pics).

Here’s a preview of the plans, and a pic of an early model I made from Ross’s drawings.

[sailboy3]

That looks great! What a fun concept.

[Rich Jones]

Enjoy the build! It looks like a sweet design to both build and sail. I'll be following closely. Gives me incentive to finally finish up the sailing rig for my 15' sailing/rowing skiff.

[johnno]

And here’s some shots of setting up for this amateur’s crack at cutting some scarfs. Having read as much as possible on this subject, I’ve realised there’s lots of words around but not too many pics, so I’ll post a few, not for you experienced builders, but for other newbies like me who might find them useful.

I first used an angle grinder, then a hand plane and finally a belt sander. It all went pretty well. My major difficulty is not having a large shed and flat table, as you can see. I ended up stapling the sheets together, and also stapling the three quarters finished scarfs through the scarf itself to make sure the sheets were sitting tight upon each other. I think to scarf the two and a half sheets it took me about an hour.

I laid the sheets end to end on a flat floor inside the house, and they added up exactly to the 6150mm I was after. I guess that means I'll be expoxying them in the house too, as that's the only flat space long enough to do the job!

[Sailor]

Keep it up, we all love pics after all!

[Lewisboater]

Please tell me that is an Ugly mark and not a void in the plywood. If it is...I would work at getting some epoxy in there before gluing it up.

Edit: Never mind...realized those were the staples.

[davebrown]

See page 116 of Reul Parker's Sharpie Book for reference. I think his boat was the Maryland Crabbing Skiff, and is close to the size mentioned. I love these boats. They are said to be tricky to sail. Long and lean.

[Larks]

Great stuff Johnno, it's an interesting design and I'm really looking forward to watching this progress!!
cheers, Greg

[johnno]

Thanks Greg, all you guys with your big projects are the inspiration!

[Rich Jones]

If you're married, does the wife know that you're going to be glueing-up plywood in the living room? You might want to give her a heads-up.
After years of dragging boatbuilding supplies through the house into my basement shop, I've gotten lots of "looks" from the good wife!!

[rbgarr]

I really like his Phoenix III design. It reminds me of the Herreshoff Amphi-craft. A good one for the SRR or Maine Island Trail!

The rudder looks quite small in the diagram of the scaled down Egret, about 2' x 6" or one square foot of surface. especially considering the size of the centerboard. The fact that it's balanced helps but it's pretty shallow and i'd think it might ventilate more than you'd want. Maybe a Bolger-type endplate would be help with that. Easily added if that turns out to be the case. Other double enders sometimes have pivoting rudders,or have them mounted on the stern post. A startling example here (the whole boat is startling!) http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...unning-Dory%29

Good Luck! I love that photo of the guy sailing over the flats!

[RodB]

Nice thread.... thanks for sharing.

Keep posting...

RodB

[johnno]

If you're married, does the wife know that you're going to be glueing-up plywood in the living room? You might want to give her a heads-up.
After years of dragging boatbuilding supplies through the house into my basement shop, I've gotten lots of "looks" from the good wife!!

Haha, mate, I bought her Devlin's Boatbuilding for her birthday! After doing all the scarfing, the ply is now spread through three rooms downstairs.

[Rich Jones]

Haha, mate, I bought her Devlin's Boatbuilding for her birthday! After doing all the scarfing, the ply is now spread through three rooms downstairs.

You married a fine woman!

I built Devlin's 14' Cackler design about 15 years ago. It's one of my favorite boats. This afternoon, I put her to bed under a tarp for the winter. His building methods hold up.

[johnw]

I’m coming up to retirement, and around January this year I got rid of a couple of old 50s Herons. It didn’t take long for the ‘I’m boatless’ feeling to strike, and when it did, I suddenly realised I would soon have the time to build a boat instead of buying one, as I’d done in the past.

That revelation was quickly followed by the second even more interesting thought, and that was that I didn’t have to build a boat that had been built before, I could build whatever I liked.

Not long after I first subscribed to WB, there was that great Bill Schwicker article on the Egret replica he built (WB 56, Jan-Feb 1984), with a magic photo of it sailing across the Florida shallows.



That image has stuck in my brain for more 25 years, and the waters here in Queensland’s Great Sandy Straits, where I live part time and flyfish, are a close replica of the Florida flats. What I wanted was a twenty odd foot version of Bill’s boat.

For months I searched high and low, pretty much in vain, for plans of what I was after. Even Schwicker’s own 19’ Sharpie had a round stern and was not what I wanted. I must have collected a hundred or so shots of sharpies off the web, and a few plans, but all were flat or round sterned.

Then by chance I came across an article comparing the lines of a certain hull with those of Egret. If I had guessed where I might eventually find plans I would have said somewhere in the south eastern states of USA, but low and behold, the author of this article lived nearby, and was a boat designer. Strangely, he lived two hours inland from the coast, but near a large lake.

As the planets started to align, I remembered a friend from up at the Sandy Straits had built a lovely strip planked boat last year (I went for a sail in it over Christmas) and he mentioned the designer lived inland not far from us. After a quick check with my friend that this boat designer was an ‘ok’ bloke, I rang him. His name is Ross Lillistone, and it turns out he has quite a reputation as a small boat designer.

With a little trepidation, I gave him a ring, told him with little introduction (I thought it best just to launch into my dream) about my desire to build a twenty foot version of Egret, and to my great delight he confessed something. I can’t remember his exact words but they went something like this. ‘You know, as I sit here in my studio, I have two pictures of boats on the wall, one of which was going to be probably the last boat I will build for myself. The two pictures have stayed there because I can’t make up my mind. After talking to you, I realise I’ve harboured the same thoughts about designing a smaller Egret, and I think that’s what I’d really like to build’.

And so has started a magical journey. You can read Ross’s more pragmatic account of the beginning of this tale on his blog, and it’s an excellent and proper account of the design journey so far. http://www.baysidewoodenboats.com.au/

Last week I bought some Kokoda marine ply, and today I tried my hand at cutting the scarfs to make myself some 6 metre long 9mm sheets for the sides. Tomorrow I’ll have a go at the cutting the scarfs for the12mm bottom sheets. I guess this means that I’ve officially started, and can make my first rather long-winded post here. I promise from here on there’ll be more pics than words (once I learn how to post the pics).

Here’s a preview of the plans, and a pic of an early model I made from Ross’s drawings.

I've spent a lot of hours sailing an Egret replica based on Joel White's lines, and I've got to say, this looks a lot better. White did the design from pictures of the Egret because no lines existed, and the boat balances poorly and is undercanvassed. I think he may have designed the centerboard to be pinned too far forward, so the CLR is too far forward. This looks like it fixes that problem.

By the way, all of Chapelle's sharpies based on Egret had a skeg in front of the rudder, which changes the balance of the boat slightly and protects the rudder. Something to consider.

[johnno]

Hi John, very nice to get your positive comments on the design, I'm sure Ross will be chuffed. We'll have a chat about the skeg.

As well as the alternative main mast/single sail location, I'm going to make two different sized rigs, both to go on the same masts. The idea of stepping a single mast is a nice approach to dropping sail area for a windy day before launching. It's potentially possible to even drop a mizzen mast I guess as a way of reefing, but I wouldn't really like to do that underway, with a building wind.

Both rigs will also be reefable, but I don't fancy the idea of sailing around on windier days with a reefed spritsail all day. So the two rigs will let me make a major choice before I go out for the day, and then reef as well if really needed. There are lots of options with two masts, two rigs, and a third mast step location.

[johnw]

If reefing is an issue, you might want to look at how the sprit booms work on the Joel White version. Instead of a snotter, the sprit boom rests on the mast with a gooseneck, and hangs from a lanyard attached to the luff of the sail. When you reef, you move to another lanyard higher on the sail. Much easier to reef than the more traditional type of sprit boom, and it works with a non-rotating mast.

[Ross Lillistone]

When John came to me with a request for a smaller "Egret-like" boat, I was very excited. For many decades I've been fascinated by Egret's lines and back in about 2001 I wrote an article which compared her sectional shape to that of Mike Roberts' Green Island 15 design.

John was very specific about certain elements of the design, such as the use of leg o' mutton sails instead of the short gaffs I had in mind, but I've since come to think that he was correct anyway. I was determined that I wasn't going to copy Egret's lines, so I was very strict with myself in not looking at a set of Egret drawings until after I had finished the hull modelling in total. As I had forgotten Egret's proportions (length-to-breadth ratio, freeboard-to-length and so forth) it meant that this new boat is as much an original design as I can make it, having just the spirit of Egret in my mind's eye.

For those who are interested, here is a gif file showing the lines drawing



I have written a very brief entry on my blog which you can see at http://rosslillistonewoodenboat.blog...e-sharpie.html

Construction is standard for small flat-bottomed boats - pre-calculated developed topside panel shapes wrapped around molds, frames, and bulkheads. The bottom panel will be attached to the topside panels using taped seams.

Dimensions to the inside of the planking are: - LOA 18' 10-1/8", Beam 4' 9-7/8", Min freeboard 1'2-5/16", freeboard at stem 2'4-1/2", freeboard at sternpost 1'10-9/16", draft at 1005lbs displacement 5-11/16". Bottom panel 12mm/1/2", topsides 9mm/3/8", deck 6mm/1/4".

This is still an untried design!

Ross Lillistone

[johnw]

Lovely! A bit more rocker forward than is traditional on sharpies, but I did that too when I designed Black Swan. Getting the rocker farther forward makes the boat more likely to surf, though it does mean she'll likely throw more spray, because the flat of the bow is more likely to pound.

[Ross Lillistone]

Thank-you for the comment, John. The matter of rocker is a problem, because the boat would be faster (in theory) with even more rocker, but would suffer in anything other than flat water. The rocker I have given her is the maximum I am comfortable to have in a boat which will venture into lumpy seas.

Below are two drawings showing the sectional shape of the hull heeled 15 degrees. You can see that the water pressure will be higher against the topsides than against the bottom, so inevitably there will be some cross-flow at the chine at some point. However, the chine is doing more than just producing drag from eddy formation - it is also providing a substantial element of lateral resistance, so what you miss out on the swings, you pick up on the roundabout!

I have been tempted to draw the same hull, but with a 4" radius chine, which would solve the eddy problem totally, but it takes away from the simplicity of the sharpie concept.



Below are two drawings showing the hull at a sharper angle of heel, but they demonstrate why a sharpie can be so fast if well proportioned.





If one wasn't concerned about waves, the fastest flat-bottomed boat would be a garvey or scow, if well proportioned. However, I'd rather go to sea in an Egret-like boat, which is really a combination of dory and sharpie.

Ross Lillistone

[johnw]

I've actually sailed a sharpie back to a mooring to windward with the board stuck in the up position just using the chines for lateral plane. I maIe a lot of leeway, but I did make enough progress to get home. That boat was somewhat wall-sided, so it had more eddies and more lateral resistance from the chines.

[Daniel Noyes]

looks like a nice hull, lots of fun in shallows and sandbars, the hull shape is certainly in a gray area somewhere between a bateau a dory and a sharpie.

I have recently been pouring over the lines of Centennial a Banks dory hull of the 1870's 20' long and 6' wide she was the first boat to be sailed single handed across the Atlantic ocean, yet only draws around 7" with the board up... another interesting design

[johnw]

I'm a big fan of sharpies, but they are only one approach to sailing on thin water. For the most part, they are inshore craft, and those with less freeboard and less flare are faster and less seaworthy. Egret had the advantages of low first cost, seaworthiness, shallow draft and amazing maneuverability, while giving up something in the performance department. The round-bilged New York oyster boats were faster than sharpies, more expensive and difficult to build, and probably only about as seaworthy as a New Haven sharpie. Sharpies tend to carry less load for their length than many other types of boats, but not for their cost.

[johnno]

Little Egret will live in a part of the Queensland (Australia) coast called the Great Sandy Straits. Perhaps a lot of you will have heard of Fraser Island, which is a World Heritage listed national park. The straits lie between Fraser Island and the mainland, and is roughly 1-2 miles wide. The main channel gets as deep as 25 fathoms but most of it large sand flats, sea grass beds and mudflats. There's probably a hundred or so islets up the straits and 50 or 60 creeks running up into Fraser Island and the mainland. The straits seem to breed their own winds, and it's typically 15 knots by afternoon with a 3 foot steep sharp chop. I'd only venture across the bar into the Coral Sea on a very good day, but even the 3 foot chop in a wind against tide can be quite fun in my fly fishing skiff. I'm looking forward to seeing how Little Egret goes in these conditions but that's what she's designed for. Google Earth gives a good idea of the place, if you search Great Sandy Straits.

[johnno]

So the house is starting to fill up with piles of sheet plywood, and framing pieces.



I've realised that epoxying the scarfs inside won't be a good move, even though that seemed to be the only place I had available with a clear 6 metre dead flat floor. However, I'm going to attempt to undertake the whole build in this long outside verandah/deck which goes down to my tiny backyard shed.

I built it years ago out of recycled timbers, and cut holes for a few palm trees to grow up and through. Thinking about it yesterday I realised that maybe I could run a few horizontal beams across it a foot or so above the deck, and a few long joists on them, and if I did it well with the laser level, I should have a nice flat platform at a height which will let me lay out three 2500mm sheets end to end, and clamp and scarf them, mark up and cut them, and then use it as a building platform for the boat itself. I'm stuck trying to refinish a deck in the house but hopefully soon those framing timbers willl be out of the house, and I'll have some pics of the platform installed on the deck.

Got some great advice from Ross yesterday about epoxying the scarf..that'll be next.

[johnw]

I love those trees. What are they?

Scarfs aren't so hard, even I have done them, and didn't have a flat floor, either. Just a disposable wooden table.

[johnno]

They're Alexandra palms John, a tropical rainforest palm..very beautiful I agree. I don't have a table at all, let alone one which would let me lay out 20 feet of plywood, so I hope the deck structure will work for me. And it'll be useful for the whole project. Pictures within a few days I hope.

[Duncan Gibbs]

Hey John, sorry I haven't ducked in here to your thread mate, but I've been a little preoccupied of late. The design of Ross' and the beginning of the build look great. You'll have to bring it down to the Tweed when you've finished as well!

Your house looks nice: Kind of the University of Queensland Architecture School style of design: Battens, ply floors and those doubled up columns such as the ones on your walkway down to your wee shed. Lovely strong yet lightweight tropical architecture.

Cheers
Duncan

[johnno]

Hi Duncan, a trip down the Tweed sounds like a great idea! It seems we have more in common than I'd realised now that I read your profile. I taught at UQ School of Architecture for nearly twenty years after a stint in practice and have been back in practice for a while now. There's probably too many friends in common to even begin the chase. However, have long been bitten by the same bug as you. Nice to meet you!

[johnno]

Hardly worthy of a post I know, but these beginnings come in little grabs when I get the chance between house renos and the like.

Got down to the shed today just before sunset and put in place the first cross members of the building/scarfing frame I mentioned the other day. Once I've got a another coat of clear on the verandah tomorrow morning, I should be able to spend the rest of the day finishing off the frame and be ready to have a crack at epoxying up the first scarf on Friday (wife will be off shopping with the sis-in-law). Also included a peek inside my little shed, nothing more than walk-in-robe for tools really, but it's very handy to where I'll be doing the build.

Neighbour poked their head over the fence this arvo while I was attaching joist brackets to our joint fence. 'What you up to?'... 'Building a boat.'... Oh yeah? Cool.... Built one before?'... 'Nope'.... 'Okay Noah, I'll watch!'

So, a few scarfs cut, a couple of framing timbers level and in place. That equals rum time here!

[johnno]

looks like a nice hull, lots of fun in shallows and sandbars, the hull shape is certainly in a gray area somewhere between a bateau a dory and a sharpie.

I have recently been pouring over the lines of Centennial a Banks dory hull of the 1870's 20' long and 6' wide she was the first boat to be sailed single handed across the Atlantic ocean, yet only draws around 7" with the board up... another interesting design...

Thanks for the interest Daniel. Quite a feat to say the least in that boat. Not sure I'll be venturing that far in mine. I will be interested to see how stable mine is, and also how I might go about righting her if I stuff up one day.

[johnno]

Completed the building frame today, patched a hole in the polycarb roof where a plam tree used to be, and then the rains came down. Starting to wonder if that Noah comment yesterday was the right one to record here. Anyway, now I have a 5.4m x 2.4 m bench frame which should hold my plywood sheets okay for the scarfing. Will do a last-minute read up on the scarfing tonight and have a crack at the first one tomorrow, weather permitting.

[johnw]

I suppose it's some kind of aesthetic crime, but have you considered a kick-up rudder on the stern? Those low-aspect sharpie rudders aren't very efficient, and while I understand that a stern-mounted rudder wouldn't work on a New Haven sharpie because it would foul the oyster tongs, many non-tonging sharpies do have stern-mounted rudders. Just a thought.

[Larks]

How do you reckon your neighbor might feel about you hanging a few patio blinds down the fence side of the deck Johnno? They may prove very handy if we get the wet summer that's being forecast....

[johnno]

I suppose it's some kind of aesthetic crime, but have you considered a kick-up rudder on the stern? Those low-aspect sharpie rudders aren't very efficient, and while I understand that a stern-mounted rudder wouldn't work on a New Haven sharpie because it would foul the oyster tongs, many non-tonging sharpies do have stern-mounted rudders. Just a thought.

This thought has crossed my mind a thousand times, and of course, you are dead right, the low-aspect sharpie rudder is not at all efficient. It's my heart and my eye that don't want a stern-hung rudder, no matter what my brain tells me. To that end I have trawled the net, done a hundred sketches and lain awake quite a few nights trying to think of a way to have a through-hull kick-up rudder that is simple and fool proof. I came up with a few ideas but none particularly elegant, and if stuck, it's in a deuce of a position to free up.

There are even a few proprietary pull-up dagger-board style rudders that I was looking at.

In the end, I decided (in consultation with Ross of course) that with the added manouverability gained by the mizzen, I'd stick with tradition. I originally learnt to sail on traditional Pacific proas, and learnt to steer them more with rig balance and seating position than the steering paddle so I'm hoping that experinece comes in handy too.

And whilst pondering these things, I need to mount a small auxiliary too. Having sailed with a friend up in the Straits, I've quickly realised that for day sailing, the ability to motor home will vastly extend my explorations when out just for the day. Again, all the simple stern hung options disappear with the canoe stern. I've seen a few neat options that might have the kernel of a solution in them.

I've put a few pics of things I've found on my searches, though I can't put my finger on the daggerboard lifting rudder at the moment.

Any ideas on either of these issues would be most welcome,
John

[johnno]

How do you reckon your neighbor might feel about you hanging a few patio blinds down the fence side of the deck Johnno? They may prove very handy if we get the wet summer that's being forecast....

Greg, you're second guessing me! Rain aside, I was also wondering just how much dust and fibreglass I might get on their washing before the neighbourly friendship was tested. I'm just now searching blind and tarp sizes. This storm this afternoon was a good test of how mauch rain comes in. Interestingly the floor is still dry about a metre wide down the centre and it really bucketed down. I was also pondering a little cantilevered awning on the other side (my side) to extend the dry working area a little. The plan has always been to cover the boat between working sessions. It's not that big and easier to keep it dry than the whole work space. Some nice patio blinds though would be great protection from the afternoon sun and would look sweet. Better get you and Duncan up here for a shed working bee

[johnw]

I like this one.



For a boat this size, you aren't going to get an outboard with a reverse gear, the kind that swing all the way around are just fine. So why have an outboard bracket that allows it to face forward? You can hang it off the side and face which way you like.

[johnno]

John, you're right. Thanks. I'd stored the photo for future reference but not quite realised how it worked, so feeling a bit dumb now I have a side deck though so will still have to work out a mounting detail but shouldn't be too difficult.

[Larks]

Greg, you're second guessing me! Rain aside, I was also wondering just how much dust and fibreglass I might get on their washing before the neighbourly friendship was tested. I'm just now searching blind and tarp sizes. This storm this afternoon was a good test of how mauch rain comes in. Interestingly the floor is still dry about a metre wide down the centre and it really bucketed down. I was also pondering a little cantilevered awning on the other side (my side) to extend the dry working area a little. The plan has always been to cover the boat between working sessions. It's not that big and easier to keep it dry than the whole work space. Some nice patio blinds though would be great protection from the afternoon sun and would look sweet. Better get you and Duncan up here for a shed working bee

I've seen a few on ebay but Bunnings and Masters seem to have some reasonably priced ones anyway. Where in Bris' are you? Or have you already told us that?

[johnno]

In Paddington Greg, only a few minutes out from the CBD. I'll check out Bunnings..I have to go there to get a few epoxying supplies tomorrow morning anyway.

[Dan St Gean]

I've put a few pics of things I've found on my searches, though I can't put my finger on the daggerboard lifting rudder at the moment.

Any ideas on either of these issues would be most welcome,

Johnno,

There's some information the Gougeon Brother newsletter "Epoxyworks" about an Egret with a rudder like that--a dagger in a cassette.
http://www.epoxyworks.com/15/sharpie.html

You can look it up as Lady B as well.

Dan

[mcdenny]

Johnno, If you are OK with powered range of ten miles or so heres an idea: http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...ower&highlight

Your boart will be just as easy to push as my Oughtred Arctic Tern and ought to da as well with a little trolling motor. Note the fairing and RC prop are important modifications to get the performance.

[johnw]

Johnno,

There's some information the Gougeon Brother newsletter "Epoxyworks" about an Egret with a rudder like that--a dagger in a cassette.
http://www.epoxyworks.com/15/sharpie.html

You can look it up as Lady B as well.

Dan

Here's another site that talks about using a removable cassette rudder setup to have an inboard rudder. The trouble is, you still have either a deep rudder or a shallow rudder, the kick-up feature is hard to do with an inboard rudder.

http://i550na.org/comment/27

But of course, for double-ended sharpies, inboard rudders weren't really traditional even when Egret was designed. Here's what a fisherman's sharpie from that era would have looked like, and it's closer to the size of yours as well:

[Ross Lillistone]

Here is one possibility I looked at which provides a snag-free skeg arrangement for Little Egret without interfering with the aesthetics of the sternpost. The dotted line outline is the most practical, I feel, and the depth of the rudder could be as much or as little as required. Note that the rudder post is normal to the bottom viewed in profile - this is to allow the upper edge of the blade to sweep the bottom without jambing or leaving a large gap.

Regardles of the rudder used, I always intended having an end plate. The problem with the end plate, though, is that one may have to accept a gap between the upper edge of the blade and the bottom of the boat using a vertical rudder post so that the endplate remains aligned with the water flow when the rudder is put over.

This is not a proper drawing - just a quick sketch for the post. The skegs can be as long or as short as preferred. Once again, this is just a sketch to illustrate a possibility


Ross Lillistone

[johnw]

I'd favor the dotted line, which makes the hull a sort of endplate, and not have an endplate on the bottom. The higher-aspect skeg would tend to stall in a sharp turn, which is good because it would allow the boat to turn more quickly.

[johnno]

Firstly, thanks everyone for their helpful input and comments. If I neglect to respond to one, please forgive, but I'm absorbing all the very useful ideas as I move through the build. First up, I epoxied my first scarf okay. Didn't go too badly, considering that it was my first time with epoxy, and first scarf. The staple gun ran out of staples halfway through, and I couldn't remember where I had stored the staples. I ducked inside to look for them and a stray cat followed me inside. No time to chase him/her out so I locked out on the upstairs verandah until I could deal with him/herlater. She/he had a good view of proceedings from up there anyway. Also forgot to bring some gladwrap so had to go hunting for that too.

I taped the edges of the seams first, seemed to get good epoxy squeeze-out under clamping, the dispensers for the epoxy were brilliant, and the scarfing table seemed to work well. I pulled the wraps off this morning and all looked pretty good. Of course, as with Tenner's shots, the super digital camera failed to focus on the important close-up shot!

[johnno]

Also took up Lark's suggestion of some shade screens..seems to work a treat! Thanks Greg.

[johnno]

...and finally, with some awnings to keep the morning sun at bay, I think my subtropical bow shed is complete.....

[johnw]

Nice work space for the summer! I planned to start building my sharpie in late November, and the weather stayed too cold for the epoxy to go off until March. Didn't quite anticipate how cold my work space would be.

[johnno]

Was this Black Swan, or are you building a new sharpie John?