Too close for comfort, modern police work, and some good works...
Missie & Laurie, a gaff cutter rigged sharpie, is a boat you should take a look at because it brings up a lot of questions...
Designed by William and John Atkin, though I suspect more William than John in the mix, Missie & Laurie is something of an odd duck with a profile more akin to a Broads yacht... Not what people think a sharpie should look like at all.
Of course, it's hard to get a clear view where sharpie criticism is concerned because so many folks simply HATE sharpies. People, I might add, who seem to be of the fools, incompetent, and folks of limited vision brigade with little or no experience with actual sharpies but then, hate is seldom ever based on real facts is it?
That said, I have to agree that there are quite a few issues with this design that sorta/kinda bother me...
For one, the proportions of rig, hull, and coachroof just look wrong. Then again, I can say the same thing about the Broads yachts so, just maybe, it's more about what you expect a boat to look like than anything being really wrong with it... I'd wager people who live in the Norfolk Broads just might look at Missie & Laurie as the bee's knees.
The interior might be dated but considering it has to work around that big centerboard trunk it does passably well... I'm pretty sure if I were to build this design that the interior layout would get a major work-over that would allow me to lose the coachroof forward of the mast.
Of course, the hull is where most people have issues with sharpies. Flat bottoms and hard chines are seen as such a negative that no matter how much you explain that they actually work and have some advantages, it almost always falls on deaf ears.
You could easily cold mold the chines (at a cost of added complexity/labor/time) but that winds up being something of a one step forward/one step back situation. Sure, the rounded chine will result in a slight gain in speed but then you also wind up with a boat that will not point as high.
We had this very same discussion with Phil Bolger for Loose Moose 2 when we were having it designed. I was hell bent on a rounded chine and Phil was happy to go either way but pointed out that the hard chine in the long run just might be the better bet. In the end, we went with the hard chine and never regretted that decision because everywhere we want to go seems to be to windward!
The thing that bothers me about the hull is the bow entry... Having sailed no small number of miles on sharpies of the overhanging bow (rather than immersed) type, I'm a firm believer in the wisdom of sailing OVER rather than THROUGH the water whenever possible.
I don't think I'd hesitate to sail this boat over to Europe and, I expect, it would be quite welcome in the Norfolk area...
Would I build this boat? Not really, but I'd sure consider a little more evolved version with a different rig (spelled schooner) in this size and simplicity range... As it stands, Missie & Laurie would be a very easy and fast to build project. Well within the reach of anyone with a short time frame and a blue collar budget.
Listening to Rickie Lee Jones
So it goes...
