Since we're speaking of sharpies I really have to mention Phil Bolgers Breakdown Schooner...
It's always been one of my favorite love/hate designs and, as such, deserves a bit of discussion.
Of course, it has a lot working for it... Shoal draft, reasonable accommodation, a low sorta/kinda tabernacled rig that stows within the length of the hull, easy to build, cheap, centerboard, water ballast, and it comes apart into three pieces...
Then again, it has a lot not quite right... It's a bit light, there is a huge amount of (in my opinion) misused/wasted space, the rig is over complicated for most folks tastes, centerboard, it has water ballast, and it comes apart into three pieces...
See my problem?
Now admittedly, the water ballast and three piece issues are only an issue if you build the design as drawn. The water ballast is easily replaced if you have a mind to with scrap steel/cement/lead/whatever. The same goes for the three piece issue as you simply build the boat in one piece instead of three. As for the less than robust scantlings, that is easily fixed by simply doing what most amateur boatbuilders do all the time anyway, which is to build beefier than designed.
The centerboard in this design has a whole set of issues/problems that drove me right over the edge into leeboard territory. Which, as it happens, is just fine because I really like leeboards!
That said, the rather huge area amidships just bothers me as it is... well, the word problematic does come to mind.
I've always thought that this design really should have been Bolger's pivotal cruising sharpie but that he got distracted with the novelty of the whole breakdown thing and, as a result, it escaped being a great design settling for good but very interesting.
In the grand scheme of things though, it really would be a great design to sit down and rethink for a round the world cruise...
For those wanting to hear what Phil has to say about the Breakdown Schooner it has it's own chapter in "Boats With an Open Mind".
