Lady B launched

Posted by J.R. Watson on 28 August 2009 | 2 Comments

Most of the crew of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. at the launch of J.R. Watson's home-built sharpie, Lady B. J.R. is standing right of center, wearing a peach colored shirt.

Lady B., launched August 20th in the Saginaw River behind Gougeon Brothers, Inc., is my sailing sharpie. She is based on H.I. Chapelle's "Dandy" design as described in the series "The American Sharpie Yacht" published in Boats magazine back in August, 1956.

I've been boating all my life, and early on was enchanted with the sharpie; I've kept that issue of Boats magazine all these years. For decades, while building other boats, the sharpie concept simmered on the back burner. Lady B. is an evolution of Dandy, justifiable I say, despite critics who felt I should adhere to convention and existing design, because the sharpie was fostered through change.

David W. Carnell, who urged me to evolve the design, assisted me with drawings and offsets of "HIC-116 Dandy" via the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of History DOT. Chapelle suggested modernizing the sharpie from work boat to yacht. Chapelle wrote, "...I got out my notes I had made of my discussions with R.M. Munroe", the Commodore himself, "I had obtained his ideas for the possible improvements he would have made and supplemented these with notes on the sharpies of this type I had designed and sailed. As a result of a study of these -and examination of the model lines, the following alterations were made..." This is what was drawn in the article The American Sharpie Yacht and detailed in the prints HIC-116 Dandy.

Thus Lady B. was built, in about 1100 hours.

Lady B takes the HIC-116 Dandy a step further in modernizing:

• West System® epoxy composite construction
• Polyurethane paint
• Stainless steel fittings
• Rounded composite chines
• NACA foil-shaped rudder and ballasted dagger board both .0012 sections).
• Carbon fiber, plywood, balsa core composite cabin roof
• Self-bailing cockpit
• Vertical penetrating outboard motor in well with fairings.
• Filament wound, carbon fiber masts
• Dacron sails
• Demountable tabernacle mast stepping system

Lady B's Particulars
LOA	28
LWL	26
Beam	7'6"
Draft	<1'
SA	290
Disp	2500
Aux	9.9 four-stroke outboard in well

 

 

 

 

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