# Herreshoff's Meadowlark sharpies



## Lewishb (Mar 18, 2012)

this was a question here a while back and I think I have some info you would be interested in........
I grew up on Cape Cod, town of Bourne on Buzzards bay in the 50s/60's
At that time there were six Herreshoff's Meadowlark sharpies based in the Pocassett river a couple miles from where I lived........ in the spring as a teenager, I would help these owners get their boats ready for sailing in the spring and they would take me along sailing.........
The 33ft plank built Herreshoff's Meadowlark had 1 3/4" to 2" Oak bottoms and 3/4" above the waterline........ they were left in the water and ice all winter because they might dry out too much if out of the water the winter months and because the river ice could not hurt them--they were just too strong......
They plowed through the swells instead of riding over them so were wet boats.
They pounded motoring upwind, otherwise they did outsail all other boats their overall length because of their waterline length and 8" beam..
My favorite 33ft Herreshoff's Meadowlark was one made out of glassed over plywood (two layers of half inch staggered)........ It rode the seas very nicely performed very well indeed--and the sides were sloped out 5" like a dory so was allmost impossible to tip over........ if you sailed too close to the shore leaboards bounce up over rocks as they have a thick bronze leading edge strip........ only thing is you dont have standing headroom unless you have a large main hatch.... otherwise its a perfect coastal crusing boat


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Sharpies don't seem to attract sailors because they aren't a "keel" boat I suppose. People just don't get excited by them either. A conversation about them goes kinda like this; "it's a what?" " Sharpie a flat bottom sailboat" "Whaaaaa?" Then you can almost hear the wheels in their mind start spinning.. "how do they stay upright?" they go "over" right? where's the ballast? What's a lee board? No room to stand up in the cabin? 
Try and explain that as a flat bottom sailboat heels the chine actually becomes keel like and helps the boat track very well and sail very fast. It will fall on deaf ears.

Here in the East. Just about all the east coastal areas could be easily explored with such a craft. Quite a few years ago had my love of boat building come to fruition, (my son lost interest) I had a 27ft New Haven Sharpie in mind as for a project.


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## oysterman23 (Jul 22, 2011)

Hi Denise
I SAIL a glass version of a small skipjack 23 lwl. 30 oa lofted from a Chappelle version of a "crab scrape" although it is now thought of primarily as a chesapeake work design it is generally accepted they evolved from New Haven sharpies. Their v bottoms were helpfull in the steep chesapeake chop and they tracked very well to weather for accurately dredging oysters or reaching up a trot line... It was nice to read what you had to say about the rarely understood sea keeping qualities of the shoal draft work boats of the east coast....Most recreational sailors are unaware of just how well some of them handled and perhaps more importantly how effective an adaptation to their particular waters they were.. Our boat stiffens up remarkably with just a bit of heel and though I know they can go over I've beenstunned how radical it can get with no threat at all Would love to see your sharpie project in water some day....maybe with one of those pretty rounded sterns some of them had....
Cod


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks Oman,  oh the duck tail stern? Well It's not likely to ever happen I missed the mark 20 yrs ago. I still have Rule Parker's book on sharpies, "they can sail on a heavy due" Sigh...

interesting site http://feeblecrew.com/index.html









interesting plans; (not affiliated) fully retractable keel.c/b
http://www.cmdboats.com/sharpie36.htm

Double ender http://www.tedbrewer.com/sail_wood/mystic.htm
Mystic;


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## WanderingStar (Nov 12, 2008)

Thanks for the post. There are a few of those Meadowlarks still around. I also think there were some 'glass ones.
Maybe when I downsize someday....


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## oysterman23 (Jul 22, 2011)

I love that photo of the "crab scrape" on the sharpie site. My boat is very close in lines etc the gunnels abit lower amidships which makes it very sweet to the eye. And I think the boom overhang (nightmare) is worse than ours...try tying off the sail cover in a chop sometime 

neat stuff.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Cool boats would love to try sailing one someday.. as you can see by response, how little interest sharpies get


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## peterchech (Sep 2, 2011)

deniseO30 said:


> Cool boats would love to try sailing one someday.. as you can see by response, how little interest sharpies get


Fast narrow low freeboard open boats with no ballast in the keel and concrete in the bilge at most for ballast, I can't see why there is little interest amongst the mostly northeasterners on this forum 

I would love to sail one of the traditional new haven sharpies, particularly the 27 footer in Reuel Parker's book. But around here I would be worried about stability and the possibility of swamping. That shallow draft was much more of an advantage in places like Florida, and if I lived in the keys I think my daysailor would be a sharpie. There was an article about a guy daysailing the keys in a sharpie in Woodenboat magazine a few months ago. He could pole it through any "dew" he encountered, and got access to the greatest inlets/beaches/fishing spots because of that narrow draft.


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## miatapaul (Dec 15, 2006)

I think they are cool toys, but just not terribly practical. They don't hold the family in the comfort as say a Catalina, and will cost just as much to hold in a slip. I might think about one as a day sailor if I lived somewhere that they were practical, like the Chesapeake, or the Keys and I wanted to keep a boat on a trailer. Especially if someplace warm. They do look cool out on the water. They seem like a great project. Just not for my stage of life.


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## ballenas (Mar 19, 2012)

I have an original Meadowlark (33ft) here on the BC coast. She is not really like traditional sharpies but more like Munroe's Presto, having an arched bottom and plenty of ballast (almost 45% of displacement). Whimbrel is a little sluggish particularly to windward in really light airs as the area of the leeboards is too small and they stall. Once we reach about 3 knots boat speed things start to work. She will tack through 90 degrees but not efficiently, performing noticably better being sailed a little fuller. 
Whimbrel is also sluggish in maneuovering, as are many sharpies. 
She is stiff and fast. by the time the wind is blowing 15 odd knots few boats will stay with us without special go fast strings and sails. I have sailed to windward in force 7 under full sail and not been over whelmed or over pressed. Taking a gust she would just heal over till rail under, accelerate and recover. With any decent wind she goes to windward very well, easily reaching hull speed, and occaisionally exceeding it. This is the only boat I have ever had that I look forward to a good passage to windward. She can be easily trimmed to sail hands free on any heading from close hauled to running wing and wing. She is not wet nor does she pound much and rarely very hard. We have been out in 2-3 metre seas without discomfort.
I have a lot of storage. Under the cockpit seats there is room for spare fuel, water, fenders sailcovers tarps, ropes, Spare anchor and rode, garbage in bags. In the foc's'le there is the main anchor, and rode, spare sails extra bedding, spares and tools, charts and publications and still room for us to stuff things out of the way when necessary. The cabin has storage for food, cloths, bedding, as well as comfortable (sitting headroom) for two and a dog. There is no privacy around the head (out of sight until needed), so we just look the other way. This works for us very well. It is a small 33 footer by todays standards.


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## oysterman23 (Jul 22, 2011)

Hi Ballenas
nice to hear your hands on experience with one in a variety of weather.
I think one thing alot of folks forget about the sharpies and various other work boats once very numerous along the coasts is that they were meant to be loaded...if you read accounts from the big oyster times around the turn of the century they were quite literally hundreds of these boats in New Haven, East River Staten Island, Great South Bay etc etc doing all sorts of hauling and transporting fish and tons of oysters for the market, seed oysters and clams, salt hay for the stables ad infinitum and the ranged in size from 23 to nearly 90 feet in length. Of course not all were the New Haven style. But that basic hull performed a variety of tasks and did it well in what I suppose we would call a "coastal" role.

For instance fisherman and cord wood dealers ran loads along the south beaches into New York Harbor on a regular basis. 
The rigs they use are a lesson too. sprit rigged or boomless mizzens allowed for work room and let wind spill when spill it must, :Efficiency in a sail is properly determined by the purposes to which it is applied so in that sense many of the older rigs were in fact quite perfect for what they were doing, and since cotton or canvas was the primary material, the larger rather low aspect arrangements were a sensible approach. There are others such as the working boats intolerance of sail changes when too much sail could be easily accommodated by taking a reef. Anyway I love the history of the work boats and think they still have some lessons to teach the boating industry of today ....Simplify simplify....


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

gotta wonder if they surfed them onto the shores?


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## oysterman23 (Jul 22, 2011)

I saw some pictures of New Haven Harbor back in the day with alot of sailcraft and sharpies spread out along the flats. it looked to be as if they hauled em em partially onto the marsh and tied them to stakes. 

There used to be a variety of interesting ways to keep boats back then....Block Island had a "Pole Harbor" along Crescent Beach which were literally hundreds of poles rigged with block and tackle that they used to haul the boats above tide level it must have been a bit more complicated than simple poles...but I do recall reading that the pole harbor was finally wiped out after the 38 hurricane. (I suspect the fishing was pretty down by then anyway)
sorry if I hijacked....I think sharpies would be pretty quick to get pooped coming into a beach?????


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## ballenas (Mar 19, 2012)

there is so little weight compared to reserve buoyancy, they easily rise to a wave.


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## ilikerust (Apr 19, 2010)

Well I dunno about most other sailors, but I do get excited by sharpies. I have developed what might be called a little obsession with them. I've read Reuel Parker's sharpie book twice over the past couple months and currently am about halfway through it for the third time. I have resolved that to build a Parker Terrapin 25 or something very similar is officially on my bucket list. 

As far as cost of keeping one in a slip - it seems to me one of the beauties of a 25 or even up to 30-foot sharpie as compared to a similarly-sized keelboat is the ability for it to live on a trailer. 

Sure, it doesn't have all the creature comforts of a modern GRP boat, but I am sincere and honest when I say I actually like a very simple boat - my current boat is a 1968 Pearson Wanderer, and aside from the Garmin GPS chartplotter and the VHF radio, it has zero electronics. No cabin heat, no A/C, no water heater, no flush toilet with holding tank (it has a composting head) not even an electric pump for my galley sink. And my goal for my "next boat" is something simpler. See, it turns out my wife is not a huge sailing fan, and has even less interest in overnighting. When I do go sailing, it's usually with a sailing buddy of mine. And I don't mind "roughing it" - in fact, I really enjoy going camping and making do with just the basics. Plus simpler = fewer things to break, malfunction or just go wrong.

I guess I've got inverse "next boat syndrome". Rather than wanting to move up to a larger, fancier boat, I'm looking forward to a less-expensive boat to own and maintain, and a sharpie that can use a small outboard motor and live on a trailer when I'm not using it seems pretty well-suited. Plus I think it would be a very cool project to build one.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Bill go for it! There was a guy up my way that was building them out of home center materials.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

These "blokes" as they say down under seem to be having a fun day.


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## deniseO30 (Nov 27, 2006)

Or! build one in the basement! lol


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## RichardM (Jan 31, 2007)

Nice Video Denise. They indeed look like they are having fun!


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