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Hello alll,
I am an arm chair builder and I've read abunch about "John's Sharpie"! A pretty little boat and looks to be just as fast. But, she has to be sailed agressively and one really has to pay attention or you might be swimming rather than sailing!
I've read John as saying that some sailors have used sand bags on either side of the centerboard trunk to settle her down. My question is to whether anyone has tried anything else to make this more of an amiable boat?
My eye says that we could change the rig to a lower center such as the Lug sails on the Southeaster or even a 4-sided sprit. We could further reduce sail area and not sacrifce speed buy giving a larger main and smaller mizen; give it a true cat-ketch look.
Thanks ,
Josh
3 replies:
RE: John's Sharpie...?
Seems like a good idea to me.
Sprit or lug? I would ask the contract designer, were I to go that (expensive) route. I would ask for sprit if the boat's not too big for it, otherwise a balanced lug. (Sprit rig isn't good when the sprit gets too long.) Not only do they keep the grandchildren safer in an unexpectedly tippy boat, but the old rigs do better to windward than the modern triangular sails, because oars and outboards work straight into the wind. With modern triangular sails, peer pressure forces you to keep the sails up and tack, in order to prove that modern triangular sails do better to windward than the old rigs.
I'm going to go with the modern triangular sails, and plow the money I save on design mod fees into a Mae West (they used to call them "PFDs", before kapok was discovered) and a crash helmet for me, and ice cream cones with sprinkles for the grandkids to eat as they watch in safety from the pier.
RE: John's Sharpie...?
The above post "Seems like a good idea..." was not "Submitted by -". To see who it was really submitted by, look at the header for this post.
( Note: if it still says "Submitted by -", then I can tell you that it was submitted by whoever I am. If I remember well, I am Camper (spelling?). But I am not sure, so I hope the header is correct. Even better, I hope that they fix this bug. No rush, though. I'm retired now and I don't care how long they take to fix stuff except for airliners and railroad track in densely poplulated areas used for transporting North Dakota crude with unexpectedly high vapor pressures.)
RE: John's Sharpie...?
» Submitted by Laszlo - Sat, 8/8/15 » 8:27 PM
Josh,
It's a very amiable boat if you want a racer and have the skills to use it. If you want something more docile, try the NE Dory. It'd be a shame to hobble a thoroughbred because you actually want a plowhorse.
Fooling with the sailplan won't change the fact that you've got a long, narrow unballasted hull. Even with low center of effort square sails, it'll still require wide-awake sailing, so there's no real advantage over just reefing early and often (and maybe a couple of sandbags).
Have fun,
Laszlo