This is one for everyone who has spent time reading Howard Irving Chappelle’s American Small Sailing Craft or Ruel Parker’s The Sharpie Book.
Perhaps particularly if you’re accustomed to British sailing boat types, you will have wondered about the funny little sharpies with strange added masts at a funny angle.
Finally I’m glad to say I’ve found photos of one online, and a sailing report – and the news seems to be that while it all looks very odd, the little boat performs as you’d expect a 13ft sharpie to do. We live and learn – that spar that’s not quite a bowsprit and not quite a mast really is no joke and the boat works. See photos here and here.
Well done the builder (a chap known only as ‘Timsboats’) for having faith and choosing to build a boat that’s outside of the ordinary…