L.O.A. 35’6”
Beam 7’6”
Draft 9 1/2”
Sail Area 487 sq ft
Weight 3,500# (approx.)
This is the quintessential sharpie, and represents the highest evolution of the type, at least in New Haven, where it all began. The big two-man sharpies really defined the sharpie, historically, and most of the other regional types may be seen as interpretations and adaptations. The 35-foot boats were also the fastest of the sharpies, and were raced very competitively, to the point where flat-out racing machines evolved from them. These big hotrods are known to have reached speeds around 20 knots, putting them nearly in a class with today’s racing multihulls. It is most impressive to know that all this happened long before the invention of fiberglass, epoxy, plywood, nylon, Dacron and carbon fiber. It almost scares me to think of how fast a 35-foot racing sharpie built with modern methods and materials would go!
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. She is the “queen of our fleet!”
