While we're 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 don't 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, I've come to these conclusions. First, Lou knows what he's 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 it's 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.
Lou's 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.
Lou's 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
7 comments:
Cute - maybe you could call it a sharp dory?
I think Lou bristles at "cute" Max. I'm not a fisherman but it seems to me this is a great fishing boat. It can handle any kind of weather and is impressive in a high sea. Reminds me of Sam Rabl's designs.
Ah, once again the question of what is, and what is not, a dory rears its head, like Nessie, above the surface of the waters.
I'm sticking with Gardner on this one.
Well, the question is mine. Lou says it's a sharpie.
So once again, Doryman shoots from the hip about what is and isn't a dory.
One question Lou didn't answer for me is: sharpies have sails, right?
Looks like the one in Sucher's book Simplified Flat Bottom Boats.
Hi are the offsets available? I love to build a boat.
Sorry Mark, this was a one-off. Lou has moved on to other things.
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