Another Sharpy

Regular visitors to these pages will know that I built a Sharpy roof rack keelboat designed by Derek Munnion. While building her I documented the build with descriptions and photographs. All of these articles are available in the blog archives, and they may be accessed by using the search facility at the very bottom of this page. Simply type in the words, ‘building sharpy’, and links to the articles will appear in a popup at the top of the page.


Within my descriptions of the building process I included photographs sent to me by a builder of a Sharpy in the USA. He has the pseudonym of ‘Mr Anonymous’, because he would prefer to remain anonymous. He started building Sharpy number 2 well before me, and he was a great help when I was building mine.


The good news is that Mr Anonymous’s Sharpy has been test-sailed, and he is extremely pleased with how she handled. I was not surprised, because my Sharpy performs very well. In fact, she is the best performer of any of the boats I have built. Well, I was chuffed to receive a recent photo of Mr Anonymous’s Sharpy which has the added facility of two floats, one either side of the hull. These have not yet been tested, but they will provide an option instead of using her ballast keel. The test sail was carried out with the standard 80 lbs drop-keel. The float configuration will require a normal centreboard, because there will be little advantage in sailing her with a ballast keel when she is rigged with the floats.


I shall be very interested to learn how Sharpy number 2 sails when she is rigged with floats. If the boat sails well, there could be an advantage for when launching and retrieving the boat off a beach. A disadvantage of the floats is that they restrict access when coming alongside a pontoon or jetty, but if both systems are available, one could choose which to use according to where the boat will be sailed. On open water and when launching off a beach, the float setup may be better.



Here are links to pages giving accounts of sailing my Sharpy, ‘Talitha’:


Sailing Talitha http://bills-log.blogspot.com/2011/07/sailing-talitha.html

Talitha’s Second Sail http://bills-log.blogspot.com/2011/07/talithas-second-sail.html

Talitha’s Third Sail http://bills-log.blogspot.com/2011/07/talithas-third-sail.html

Talitha’s Fourth Sail http://bills-log.blogspot.com/2011/07/talithas-fourth-sail.html

Talitha Sails the Deben http://bills-log.blogspot.com/2011/08/talitha-sails-deben.html

Talitha Sails the Deben Part 2 http://bills-log.blogspot.com/2011/08/talitha-sails-deben-part-2.html



Text for the Day

Hebrews 13:5 ‘Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”’