Sharpie 46 – New Haven

Description

L.O.A.                    46’ 7”

L.W.L.                   40’ 1”

Sparred Length       51’ 10”

Beam                     10’

Draft                      2’ 4” / 7’ 9” (board up/board down)

Rig                        Bald-headed gaff schooner, self-tending

Sail Area                774 sq ft

Displacement          16,300#

Trailer Weight         13,500# empty

Ballast                   5,000# lead in box keel & centerboard, 2,600# water

Ballast Ratio           30.7% without water; 46.6% with water

Hull Speed             8.5 knots (this hull will semi-plane to greater speeds)

This is a large Maxi-Trailerable version of the quintessential New Haven sharpie, and represents the highest evolution of the Connecticut type, where it all began. As background for the model presented here, I used the four big New Haven sharpies from Chapelle’s American Small Sailing Craft, and Fig. 3 from Chapelle’s Paper 25 (this model can be seen in Chapter Two, Fig. 2-11 of The Sharpie Book). I tried to combine the best elements of these models to create a contemporary cruising sharpie that is completely representative of the type. The narrow, light-displacement round-sterned hull is the fastest of all the pure sharpies, and will begin to plane almost when it starts to move.

One of the most common requirements of cruising sailboats is that they have interior standing headroom—a feature not possible in small sharpies. Hence I have designed this cruising sharpie to achieve two goals: standing headroom and trailerability without escort vehicles. Hence the beam is limited to ten feet, and some of the ballast is supplied by huge fresh water tanks placed in the lowest part of the hull.

The cruiser sleeps four in a vee-berth and (private cabin) double berth forward, and can accommodate two more in a convertible dinette aft. There is a small cargo (33 cubic feet) hold amidships on the port side. There are four water-tight bulkheads, making this vessel as close to unsinkable as possible.