Sharpie Otter Relaunched

On the Sunday of last weekends Port Townsend Boat Festival, I was whisked away from the festivities to witness the relaunch of Alan Woodburys sharpie on Mystery Bay. Alan has been working on restoring this boat for awhile and friends kept me appraised of progress, but I had yet to see it in person.

Its a stout boat, built of fir plywood and designed with a cat ketch rig. The sail rig has yet to be installed.

We had a poignant  de-naming ceremony and re-christening to appease Neptune.

It always helps to have a bagpiper for these occasions

I was impressed.

Alan has apparently forgotten to lower his rudder, but hell get to it.

There is seven hundred fifty pounds of concrete blocks inside for ballast and look how much capacity is left.





Sharpies are one of my favorite designs, for their unique combination of simplicity, efficiency and seaworthiness. Many of you will be familiar with sharpies from Ralph Munroes Egret and also from the design board of Reuel Parker.

Otter is twenty seven feet long and eight feet wide. The cabin is expansive, which at first gave me pause, but on the water has a grace I wouldnt have imagined. We took a quick tour around Mystery Bay under the power of a 9.9hp outboard while Jamie Orr and I sat down below in comfort.

There is a small unobtrusive centerboard in the middle of the cabin and a much larger one just aft in the cockpit, which you can see in the last photo above. With two masts and two centerboards, the options for trimming the helm are infinite.  

Otter took to the beach as her namesake implies and rode easily on the shingle while we celebrated. Skipper and crew could easily disembark without getting their feet wet! Such is the beauty of the extreme rocker and flat bottom of the traditional sharpie.

Alans boat was a bit rough and not very well loved before he started. His repair work, however, is top drawer and we look forward to the finished product.

Congratulations, Alan!

Jamie and Alan scouting out an appropriate mooring. Please note the custom sailing outfits.

Thats one happy, hardworking skipper.

If youre interested in reading about building a sharpie, there is a thorough description by Dale Austen of his Pangur Ban, a 28 foot Bill Schwicker sharpie design originally published in WoodenBoat #56.








Another builder/designer who finds sharpies impressive is Ross Lillistone. I recommend a visit.

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Motor Sharpie  Kingfisher

 Lou Brocetti 19  Power Sharpie

While were on the subject of sharpies, I should mention - my good friend, the superlative boat builder/designer Lou Brochetti wants to sell his practically brand new motor sharpie. Sorry, I dont understand why. He gets a hankerin to build a new boat from time to time, is all I can figure.

Two summers ago, Lou took this boat to the San Juan Islands, in Washington State. It was a brand new boat then and performed beautifully, just as planned. Well, Lou was tickled because, of course, it was his plan.

You may wonder why this is considered a sharpie. Well, I had that question too. Why not a semi-dory?

So, Ive come to these conclusions. First, Lou knows what hes talking about. Second, a semi-dory (which is most often a motor dory) has a flat aft profile allowing it to plane. I owned a semi-dory once, with an old Evinrude 35 hp that would push its heavy-built plywood hull up to a wide-open 25 mph! We called it the Bay Bomber. I swear it used a gallon per mile.

Lous sharpie is slower and infinitely more efficient. It has quite a bit of rocker in the bottom, a narrow transom with very little interest in planing. With a 9.9 hp outboard, it burns a gallon of gas every four hours or so, at cruising speed, which is around six knots.

Lous second trip in this boat was last summer on Franklin D Roosevelt Lake, which is behind Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. According to him, it just might be one of the best cruising grounds in the world.

If you want an efficient motor driven gunkholer, you should call Lou. He has just the boat for you.
(Shown here tucked comfortably up on a remote sandy beach.)

A pretty salty, hardworking boat, built just for fun.
Lou Brochetti, Redmond, Oregon:  541-504-0135

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