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Shearwater 17 S&G by Wordsmith
New launching – modified Shearwater 17 S&G
My second project this year has been a built-from-plans Shearwater 17 S&G, that popular and attractive design by Eric Schade, but I did make a few changes, surely the prerogative of the owner-builder!
To make entry and exit easier for this almost 70 y.o. Ancient Mariner with somewhat inflexible lower limbs, cockpit length is increased by about 3” and widened a little at the front.
I love the upswept bow and stern lines of the design, but attaching a rudder to the stern as drawn would be a bit like putting a bike-rack onto a Ferrari! So, I deleted the upswept stern tip and re-jigged the aft deck-line to a gentle uniform upward curve, viewed from side-on, while the transom is now vertical. Frankly, I do quite like this mod, even though purists, and maybe Schade, would scoff.
The cockpit coaming is a vertically-set lamination of two x 3mm ply strips topped off with a conventional inch-wide 4mm top rim, all stiffened by ‘glass and epoxy. As I don’t use a spray skirt the usual coaming style isn’t needed, but I made the front edge a bit wider and higher than normal - about 1½” off the deck line - to deflect water running along the deck that might otherwise enter the enlarged cockpit.
After consulting this Forum, and giving it a lot of thought, I chose to omit both deck hatches, not needing extensive under-deck storage on my short daytime outings, but small circular hatches in the front and rear bulkheads do give some access.
Handling the three-piece pre-assembled deck structure was very tricky – simply a nightmare when just wired-up, improving to merely nerve-wracking even when stiffened by the first tack fillets. It comprises a 3mm curved centre deck section, with long skinny spear-like 4mm sheer panels hanging off the sides. More than once it started to fold up like a Japanese origami paper sculpture - heart in mouth time! The building manual warns of this!
The three-colour paint job accentuates the attractive, long, pointed, organic lines of the Shearwater design. Top-quality Unaffordium marine enamel – ‘Pearl’ colour – is on the more vulnerable hull bottom and sides and coaming, contrasted by areas of light purple and yellow paint above, the elongated spear-like yellow section being cut just inside the curves of the sheer panels. These two colours are ordinary exterior household enamel, which I figured is OK to use here as the craft will spend at most only a few hours a week outside. Perhaps more importantly, there is a huge range of colours available, whereas marine enamels offer only very few. I’m not totally happy with my colour choice – it’s perhaps a bit ‘in your face’ – but at least different! High gloss marine varnish finishes the decks.
Safety lines are secured under the decks, entering and exiting through small nylon grommets, keeping the deck neater than with the more usual fairleads. For neatness, the uphaul line for the excellent SmartTrackâ rudder system runs under the deck, exiting 15” or so forward of the stern, alongside the rudder control wires.
Finally, my bathroom scales tell me that the entire craft weighs in at about 22 kg.
The Shearwater is a wonderful and very attractive paddling craft, a decided step-up from my Chesapeake 17LT in many respects, and a challenging and absorbing building process.
Enjoy the photos.
Wordsmith 
7 replies:
RE: Shearwater 17 S&G by Wordsmith
RE: Shearwater 17 S&G by Wordsmith
It's my pleasure Wordy, But as you and others can see, I have messed up the inserting of pictures. And am not doing justice to this beautiful build of yours. I will endevour to sort this out, Seppy.
RE: Shearwater 17 S&G by Wordsmith
Nice work and super paint job! You may find, though, that you don't need a rudder, as this boat steers very easily by leaning. You may also find that you do need a skirt, as it sits pretty low to the water. The forum guidelines suggest reducing photos to a width of 500 pixels to avoid clipping.
RE: Shearwater 17 S&G by Wordsmith
Hey Wordsmith, It is looking soo good! I love the paint job you did on this one. The deck line jigs look like they worked perfectly, and your cable guides are very clever. KK
RE: Shearwater 17 S&G by Wordsmith
Wordsmith, An absol;utely beautiful job! I am approaching the point of putting the deck on my Shearwater 17 Hybrid and am trying to tie up as many loose ends as I can before those end compartments become hard to get to. I too will be installing the Smart Track System and have been giving a lot of thought to the details. would you be so kind as to share some additional prictures of the entire rudder installation? Comments & pitfalls?? What is the overall length of the pieces covering your deck penetrations of the cables? All comments and cautions appreciated. Paul G
RE: Shearwater 17 S&G by Wordsmith
Only too happy, Paul - but I have no other photos to share - and anyway as you can see we had difficulty posting the above photos! The rudder and uphaul cables (the black plastic inside which the wires run) are attached to the upper inside of the hull aft of the cockpit along the sheer line with wire twists, cable ties, whatever, just to stop them rattling against the hull - the rudder control cable plastic is very hard. They exit the deck through slots cut lengthwise - about 2" long x 1/4" - so that the cables come up at a very shallow angle - again their stiffness necessitates this. (The cable for the rudder uphaul was bought in the local hardware store garden irrigation section - it is rather softer and has a slightly larger bore to accept the black nylon (?) line that comes with the kit). The photos of the wooden shrouds or fairings are a bit misleading (and not quite finally tidied-up when photos taken) - they actually blend-in a lot more than the photos suggest. Each is simply a cut-at-an-angle length of 1" dia broom handle (timber unknown - made in Malaysia according to the label - very light, possibly rubberwood?), 11" (x 2) and 8 3/4" long respectively - not at all critical. A long-ish groove was cut on the underside of each with the router to accommodate the cables, then finished off underneath with the belt-sander to give nice a flat base for later epoxying to the deck. Pull the cables through the slots before fixing the deck, secure them, then pull them through the shrouds when deck varnishing etc is completed. The cable exits from the two outer (rudder) shrouds need to be 4" apart as the rudder fitting where the wires attach is 4" wide. Epoxy the shrouds onto the deck, then cut off the ends of the plastic cable inners. Finally, fill the small gap around the cable and ends of the routered-out shroud with silicone or epoxy. The aft ends of the shrouds are 17" (rudders) and 15" (uphaul) respectively from the transom - not super critical though. One tip - my SmartTrack kit included a short length of very hard black plastic tube, which I assumed was a bearing to take the rudder pintle. Anyway, I used it as such! - I epoxied this into the stern while securing the rudder in the bearing tube to get a 100% accurate position and angle for the rudder. You'll need to mark the position of, and then re-drill for, the hole through the deck once fitted. On my earlier Ches 17 I drilled the hole for the rudder pin into the epoxy pour, and despite several re-fills/ re-drills never could get it quite accurate despite many attempts to remedy it. Installing the bearing with the rudder temporarily mounted enables a 100% accurate location. My e-mail address is lbw@bmail.com.au - let me know if you'd like any more thoughts. Enjoy the rest of the job! Wordsmith
RE: Shearwater 17 S&G by Wordsmith
» Submitted by Wordsmith - Thu, June 25 » 9:46 PM
I am very grateful to my hyperspace/ virtual chum Seppy who posted these photos and words on my behalf, responding to the challenge of helping out this electronically-inept geriatric!
Seppy and me live quite near each other in SE Queensland (Oz east coast) but we have never met - I hope we do soon!
Thanks again Seppy - you are agent!
Wordsmith