Building my 26’ Norwalk Island Sharpie, by Klaus Sussenbach

Background:

Ever since I’ve been reading books about sailboats I wanted to build one and sail it round the world. Not being a man with the required means for this adventure, it remained a dream, frequently topped up by the reading of sailing books.

Many years passed before I concluded that cruising round the world is out of the question for financial reasons, so I bought a second hand 20’ trailer sailor to get on the water and find out what sailing is all about. I joined a sailing club and started to race the boat round the buoys, there is really no quicker way to learn sailing. This boat also gave me many ideas of what I would like to have in a boat, especially after having spent a few nights on her at anchor. It also convinced me that sticking to a trailerable size for my dreamboat was wise from a financial point of view.

During this time I started collecting tools, after deciding the dreamboat would most likely be a design built in wood. This compromised the usual collection of power drills of battery and mains variety, sanders, electric and hand planes, jigsaw, circular saw, etc. I had a nice shed/workshop in my backyard and, being handy with mechanical things, built a decent size bandsaw and a pedestal belt/disk sander. These last items proved invaluable later as they made it possible to built the boat to a very elaborate standard relatively easily.

I also made one dozen clamps of the parallel action variety, these were easy to make and I read somewhere one can have never too much clamps for boat building.

I had planned to first build a dinghy to get the feel of boat building, got some plans for this and started collecting materials when I came across a picture of the 26’NIS in a boating magazine. I liked the look of her, sort of grows on you doesn’t it? I was hooked. Anyway, after re reading the article many times I came to the decision that this design was it, she looked really pretty and, best of all, it looked to be within my skills to build her (forgetting the dinghy for a while).

Building my sharpie:

After obtaining a set of plans from Duck Flat Wooden Boats and studying them for a while I became aware that this boat building business required some careful thought regarding available finances and a decent building space.

I was lucky that somebody in my town had a nearly completed a 26’ NIS and so I arranged to have a look at her. The guy had built her exactly to Kirby’s plans, version 1. He had built her outdoors and apparently moved the building site several times. It became immediately apparent to me that this is not a good way to build a wooden boat (the guy had lost interest and tried to sell me the hull, he did, much later, find a buyer for much less than material cost!).

This boat did not have epoxy pre coated plywood nor a lick of paint anywhere inside, water stains were visible where the rain had got in, there was no provision for a motor bracket or well opening nor for mast step tubes, all items extremely difficult to rectify at this late stage. I also saw that there was a lot of wasted and inaccessible space inside if this boat is built exactly as on the plans and it was not difficult to rectify this if it was planned before starting to build.

So I went home drawing up plans for a decent enclosed building shed, I could not see myself labouring away for some years under a flapping tarpaulin and worrying about rain leaking in all the time.

While the shed was being built I made a 1/10 scale model of the boat (I changed the plans dimensions to metric as I find that easier) out of model plywood, it was a bit fiddly but a very worth wile exercise and it gave me opportunities to try out ideas of what I could change on the full size boat while spending very little of hard cash. I also drew the plan view and side elevation of the boat on graph paper to 1/10 scale, this came in very handy later.

At the same time I started collecting scrap lead and scoured the classified ads for timber bargains for the boat and building frame.

The shed turned out great, it had heavy I-beams under the roof where I built a winch driven hull turning over contraption which still comes in handy to lift the boat on and off the trailer. Lots of lights for those late night sessions and power points were installed, a plywood storage rack, shelves, a cupboard for accumulated boat bits, even an old fridge to keep the beer cold!

From the other chap’s hull I saw that if she was built as the plans specified, I would get a pretty boat with a lot of internal wasted and inaccessible space and the boat would be built a bit too light for my liking. She may go like hell but I intended to trailer her a lot and sail on the ocean along the coastline, I wanted a sturdy, reliable boat that could take a beating from the elements.

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I included the following modifications when building my boat, you are welcome to copy my ideas but with the proviso that they are my ideas and not the designers approved modifications, with the exception of the double thickness bottom. Also, if you pass these ideas on to other builders, please credit them to me and not to the designer.

I will also accept no responsibility of any kind, while these modifications were successful on my boat there is no guarantee they will be on yours!

Starting from the bow, an anchor locker was fitted just ahead of the mast tube doubler, this was well worth while, with a smallish opening lid but deep. It holds a 4.5kg CQR anchor, 10m of 6mm chain and 50m of 8mm nylon warp with room to spare, all ready to let go at an instant. The anchor cleat was fitted inside the locker, on the aft face of the stem. It is a homemade ss affair for cleating chain as well as rope. The locker lid has a half round cut out on the forward edge to allow for the lid to shut with the chain passing through. The towing eye bolt nuts are at the bottom of this locker and there is also a small drain hole on the port side.

A hatch to fit the opening in Blkhd A, this has a recessed lip and inserts from the front to make this space watertight in case of collision damage, it also hides the mast tube when occupying the V-berth.

I built the version 2 of the plans, with the V-berth, this berth is too short for a 6’ person so blkhd C was moved aft by 100mm (4"). This is where the scale plans on the graph paper come in useful to get the new dimensions for this blkhd.

The forward end of the cabin trunk looked a bit like it was sawn off so a laminated, curved panel ahead of it was fitted which created a small space for an incorporated Dorade vent for ventilation. This has a shut off disk, turned from the cabin and works great. The mast electrical connector socket is also fitted on this panel.

There are three compartments, forward of Blkhd B, which have watertight sealed buoyancy space under the V-berth. Circular access hatches on top of these 3 compartments allow inspection of this space.

Aft of blkhd C is a secondary blkhd on each side of the boat to make a 250mm (10") wide hanging locker and a smalls compartment on top of it.

The battery lockers are immediately aft of this locker under the salon bunks Port &Stbd and hold a Trojan 130 AH battery in each.

The footwell space between salon bunks and CB case was widened to 400mm with a similar height to the bunk top to fit a slide in fridge on the port side. This also gives deeper lockers under the bunks and a more comfortable seating position.

The CB trunk stops at blkhd D, this trunk was extensively modified to: hold the wider, hydrodynamically shaped, boards, to have the CB’s pivot pin above the water line, to have a smaller and less obtrusive front section of the trunk, to support insert panels to make the salon bunks extra wide, and to fit a removable table on top.

My boat sleeps 4 adults in comfort.

Blkhd E was also extensively modified to: provide footwells aft for the salon berths and have secondary sloping sections in the cockpit on both sides of the companion way which give space for cubby lockers in the cabin, two a side, the smaller upper cubby’s holding the electrical panels, the larger lowers being general stowage.

The general outside appearance of the cabin trunk is affected by this modification, the sloping aft face of it is, IMO, more pleasing to the eye than the square, sawn-off, look, it is also more comfortable to lean against from the cockpit. It too makes a very strong blkhd to support a winch on top. The vertical portion of blkhd E at the CB trunk were left out so there was more room for the fridge to slide back. The 75x50mm reinforcing beam across blkhd E on its aft face and the double upper section providing more than adequate stiffness to take all the sideways loading of the CB trunk.

There is no fixed galley to take up space in the cabin, the 2 burner gas cooker hinges fore and aft on port just ahead of blkhd E. It sits up under the side deck against the hull, making room for seating and sleeping there. The sink slides down at an angle under the sloping cockpit floor on the port side of the CB trunk, just under blkhd E and it drains into the CB well above the waterline. It is totally out of the way when not in use. The faucet swivels over the sink or away against the blkhd. There is a manual water pump to prime the electric one in the bottom of the cubby locker next to the sink. The water tanks (2x50litres) are under the salon bunks sections between blkhd E and blkhd F. There is a built in cutlery rack and shelves next to the hinged cooker. There are also shelves along the sides of the salon and the V-berth.

These stiffen up the hull panels by a considerable amount, there is no flexing anywhere if one pushes hard against the hull from the outside.

I did not build a bridge deck ahead of the thwart in the cockpit as this provides no footwell for anybody sitting in the shelter of the cabin trunk. Instead, the cockpit floor slopes up to follow the CB trunk shape below it. Walking on this slope is acceptable by the angled teak slats on top. The cockpit seats have 3mm thick, 40mm wide teak slats with the three next to the seat edges contoured. This keeps the seats dry and prevents slipping off them when the boat is heeled.

I recessed the thwart down to be level with the cockpit seats, making a comfortable outside berth for dozing under the sun awning.

I recessed the full width laminated thwart (holding the curved traveller track) to be level with the cockpit seats, this allows one to stretch out on the seats without painful protrusions on the back.

The cockpit as per plan is too wide, it wastes locker space below and short feet cannot reach to brace off the other side! I used 600mm for the cockpit well width, this continues for the same companion way hatch width, again, giving more useful space below. The narrower companion way was no problem for the average size person to go below. One steps in on top of the wider CB trunk, turns sideways and steps below. The cabin trunk appearance is better too with the narrower entry. The main hatch, btw., slides into a "garage", making it tight against leaks and the cabin top resembles less of a railway shunting yard.

I installed 4 cockpit lockers, the front ones, btw. blkhd F and G are enormous and go all the way to the bottom, they also have a shelf fitted to the outboard side while the aft ones, holding the life jackets, have their floor at cockpit sole level. There are 2 large buoyancy chambers below the cockpit floor, the fwd one is btw. blkhd F and G up to the locker sides, the aft one extends to the hull side btw. blkhd G and H. These chambers also have circular, sealed, access hatches for inspection of this space. I later learned just how airtight these buoyancy compartments were, it was very difficult to unscrew the hatches as the change in ambient air pressure had sealed them very well. I then drilled a very small hole (0.5mm) into each hatch lid to equalise the air pressure and the consequent strain on the hull. This tiny hole is too small to allow entry of much water in case of flooding.

The cockpit locker lids are hinged with ss piano hinges and they have a double lip with a sloping water drain channel around it. This was a bit fiddly to build but it is, IMO, absolutely necessary to have a decent sealing lid with such a large locker space below. I used a hasp and staple with a turnable staple to lock these, making it easy to padlock them.

There is also a drain hole at the furthest out spot of the cockpit seats with a tube connected, which drains water pooling there when the boat is heeled down to the cockpit floor. This works up to a 30 degree heel and is located on the aft face of blkhd F.

There are also cubby openings in the cockpit coamings, two on each side, to hold winch handles etc. These are only half the width of the blkhd spacings to keep the opening small. A secondary end was inserted into the coaming void for this.

The total calculated buoyancy of all five chambers was 750kg, this roughly equalled the combined weight of the ballast, motor and all metal parts on the boat and making her positively buoyant even if the cabin is flooded. Further, should the hull be pierced below the water line, the higher bunk sides are acting as buoyancy too until the water overflows into the top opening bunk lockers. The relatively small floor space below would restrict the amount of water coming in to an amount which the bilge pumps could cope with and it possibly would not rise to the bunk level anyway.

I did not consider to put foam buoyancy in, air is much lighter and allows the inspection of these normally enclosed areas. I do not think it wise to permanently enclose any areas in a wooden boat, dry rot is too insidious of a problem.

I built blkhd H as per plan, if I did it again I would move this blkhd forward by 100mm (4"). The reason is that the motor well is very tight with a decent size motor in there.

I decided on the Mercury 9.9HP two stroke as this was the only motor size available then (1996) I could fit (its tiller handle rotates fully aft to limit the height of the motor). The gear lever is combined with the throttle grip and was meant to stick out of the forward motor access hatch for control of the motor. This worked but was difficult to use in an emergency (which way to turn is reverse?), so I made a morse control lever and new control cables to hook to the existing rotating control bit under the motor cowling. This works great, one lever in the stbd cockpit side, straight up is neutral, push it forward and she goes that way, pull it back and she reverses. The cat’s miouw as they say.

The motor slides up and down on flat ss bars which are on a spacer, T- fashion, bolted to the inside of blkhd H. The bottom hatch for the propeller slides to stbd to open, I made its sides with a 45 degree bevel to lock it in place when shut. The front and aft sides are straight. It is sliding in an aluminium channel, situated fore and aft of the opening, and operated with a hinged stick attached on the stbd side of the hatch. There is a rope and pulley on the port side to assist when closing this hatch. It is fiddly to use due to lack of room, but it works. The propeller comes very close to the leading edge of the rudder blade as the motor is really too far aft.

My thoughts on the motor and the well it lives in:

A 9.9HP 2 stroke is the minimum (or 8HP 4 stroke) I would recommend for this boat if she is used anywhere other than very sheltered waters. The high windage of the hull really requires all that power to steer her in strong cross wind situations. The 2 stroke unfortunately smokes up the propeller aperture while the boat is stationary, quite worrying the first time one experiences smoke belching out of the motor well! It is also noisy. A four stroke would be my choice now if only I could fit one in there!

Due to the tight fit it is highly recommended to get the motor while the boat is still upside down on its building frame and the boats bottom and sides are off. You then need to think upside down and design the motor bracket with its raising mechanism. You then can locate the exact place where the propeller opening goes (immediately aft of the bottom transom cleat for a standard blkhd H location!) Don’t make this aperture too small in case you get a low pitch, high reverse thrust, propeller later (which is larger in diameter) like I did.

It is also essential that there is a water tight blkhd, fore and aft, on each side of the motor up to the cockpit seat level. This is not mentioned in the plans! The reason is, especially if blkhd H is moved forward, that any free space in the motor well will flood, robbing the boat of buoyancy where it is needed most. There are also inspection hatches in these blkhds. I used the same spacing as the cockpit well (600mm) for this, allowing the cockpit drains to pass on the motor side of the blkhd.

Build this in while the hull is still upside down and not as an afterthought as I did (its hard to work in the motor well once the space is enclosed). I also fitted a venturi tube hard against the aft face of blkhd H to drain any water that trickles in when under sail. This works moderately well but there is always some water in there, perhaps better to build in any area below water level. The drain hole is handy to empty the well when loading the boat back on the trailer.

I made a shelf on top of these fore and aft blkhds, the stbd one to hold the fuel tanks (2x 12litres) and on port a complete sealed box with a separate top hatch and a drain tube out through the transom to hold the gas bottle. The cockpit drains also go through the well space, I used 2 x 50mm (2") diameter PVC plumbing tubing for this with two 30 degree elbows in each to get the sloping run and the exit closer to the centre line of the transom. These tubes were roughened up well before epoxying them in place, so far they stood up well and work great.

The top motor hatch is a sliding affair similar to the cabin hatch, giving a large opening to insert the motor through. This needs to be raised at least 50mm (2") above the lazarette top to accommodate the motor height when it is retracted (measure your motor first! The motor needs to be lifted above the boats bottom to allow the hatch to slide under the skeg).

One last thing about the motor, you need to disable the shallow drive tilting mechanism completely or, if you accidentally activate this, you will not be able to retract the motor nor lower it sufficiently to release it from shallow drive. In other words, you are up the proverbial creek as I found out the hard way. I also lock the motor straight ahead, and this needs to be a firm lock or the propeller spinning in the slipstream will damage your well opening and hatch if you try to raise it while the motor is slightly turned to one side, the voice of experience spoke here J .

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I have altered the transom appearance on my boat by making the top of it curved athwarthships, the bottom is straight as on the plans. This gave me a little more room inside for the motor, it also looks better, I don’t like that square chopped off look at the end of a boat. It of course alters the rudder casing angle so this needs to be allowed for.

My boat was built with the intend to race it at times but primarily to have a comfortable cruiser. To this extent the following modifications were also built in and proved successful:

Both masts rotate, that is they are locked in the mast tubes when stepped and the mast tube itself rotates. This way there is no wear on the mast , the sealing of the deck bearing is easier and no additional bits hindering the stepping process are attached to the masts. Advantages: increased sail areas upwind (lower mast turbulence area), easier to raise and lower sail while under way ( no need to motor dead upwind). Downside: all halyards and sail controls must cleat on the mast to prevent the line tension changing while rotating and there is a bit of engineering involved for the bearings.

I rigged the boat so all sail control is done from the forward hatch, no need for somebody to balance on the narrow fore deck trying to reef the main. This works well and is safer for single handing as I don’t need to step on the side decks at all unless coming in for anchoring.

My boat has assymetric centreboards, these are housed in the same trunk like a port and starboard half of a centreboard. These work great, the boat points very high and as only half the full board weight is involved its easy to raise and lower them at each tack (lets face it, there is not much else to do for the crew on this type boat). These were not originally planned but evolved more of an accident while making the CB, more about this later.

The main and mizzen sails have a full width traveller, there is a 2 speed mainsheet (2:1 and 6:1) to avoid heaps of mainsheet on the cockpit floor with the boom end sheeting on a very long boom that can be let square off. The mizzen sail had a rope bridle traveller for a while but this kept sawing into my nice laminated and varnished tiller when the boom was square off so it now sports a curved traveller on tubular supports. This curve follows the transom top curve, the traveller ends are supported on the quarter safety rail supports. There is also a bow rail with a split front where the forward ends of the 600mm (2’) high "fence" are attached. The "fence" does not distract much from the pretty lines of the boat.

The mainsail has 7 battens, 3 reefing points with the first two permanently rove for quick reefing and there is a 3 part lazy jack system.

The mizzen has 4 battens, 2 reefing points permanently rove and a 2 part lazy jack system.

The masts are spun tapered aluminium, I have the tall rig. Its easy to raise the masts by myself, you can see how on the photo. Ask me if you want more details about this system. There is a masthead light and strobe light on top of the main mast, it is not practical to fit electronic wind indicators to a rotating mast so there is a simple dinghy windex mounted on an arm on the forward side of the masts.

The booms are of aluminium tubing with flattened sides, It was easier to fit all the sail control bits on them than with wooden box booms.

Both booms have a powerful vang and outhaul for good sail control, I also rig a thin sail downhaul line for the mainsail to lower it easily from the forward hatch. The boat has now been fitted out with a mizzen staysail but this has not yet been tried on the water.

This boat carries external lead ballast, it is through bolted about 0.9m(3’) apart port and starboard of the centre line and resembles shallow (75mm, 3" deep and 125mm, 5" wide) skegs which extend for 2.7m (9’) on each side of the hull. My reasons for this arrangement are: there are no keel bolts inside to tread on (they are just inside the vertical bunk fronts in the lockers), there is more locker space, the twin skegs provide a solid area for the boat to sit on when trailered or beached and there is an increase in stiffness of the boat with the lower ballast. This ballast is fully faired in and glassed over. She also can sail to windward with the CB all the way up but, of course, points not well then.

As it turned out the boat floated a little stern down at launching, the crew aboard and some gear in the large cockpit lockers made this worse to the extend that she cruised with the bow slightly out of the water. I finally got the courage to cut off 90 kg of lead aft of blkhd F. This was by far the most difficult job I did on the entire boat.

Do not place any ballast aft of blkhd F and very little aft of blkhd E!

These sharpies are sensitive to trim and stern down is slow! It also compounds the effects of the excess water sloshing about in the motor well.

I have not replaced the removed lead elsewhere as the double bottom is more than compensating for the weight loss. She carried originally 630kg of lead ballast instead of the 680kg in the plans, I did not notice any more heeling with the new figure of 540 kg lead ballast.

The entire bottom of my boat is covered with graphite reinforced epoxy up to the boot stripe as are the centreboards, the trunk inside and the rudder blade. There is no additional paint used in these areas. This has stood up well to use so far and it was no problem to fix the scratches caused by my home built trailer during launching.

As mentioned, the bottom is a double layer of 12mm high density marine plywood (hoop pine), giving that secure feeling of a one inch thick floor. There is no keelson required when using this modification, with a smooth floor to walk on.

The entire cabin top is also a double layer of plywood, I use 2 layers of 4mm okoume marine plywood. The 6mm specified on the plans make a cabin top which feels squishy underfoot, on mine you can jump about without worries.

There is an article available on request from me how to do the cabin top, using the vacuum bagging method (this is easier than it sounds).

The topsides are from 9mm okoume marine plywood, these have been scarfed and assembled in situ as was done for the bottom, there are no butt joins used anywhere in my boat. Assembling the entire topsides on the floor next to the boat as suggested on the building instructions was impossible due to the lack of floor space and helpers so I used the scarfing method, it is not difficult and it made it possible to do this job without any assistance required.

The hull turned out quite fair, requiring only a small amount of filler where the scarfes did not lap perfectly.

The hull was painted with single part polyurethane (Interlux Brightside), the final result turned out great with the roll on and tip off method. If you do not like the standard colours, do not tint this paint , instead mix a quantity of a different colour to get the desired effect. I had to sand back the final coat as the tinting caused a streaking of colours, I then mixed 3 parts of green with one part of yellow for the desired shade of green with perfect results. This paint takes at least a week to dry hard enough for launching, leave longer if you can wait J .

As mentioned, I also built a trailer for her. The boat model helped a great deal there but as this also was my first trailer project it proved to be a long learning process. The idea was, with the shallow draft boat, to build a trailer which remains on dry land for launching and retrieving. The electric brakes which were used made this idea almost mandatory. It is a tandem, load sharing axle affair with a break back drawbar to tilt the trailer and allow the boat to slide off even on a shallow angle ramp. This works, and the skegs kept the boat aligned until they slid off the end of the trailer, unfortunately there was no way after this to keep the hull straight until she was fully off the trailer. This was where the aforementioned scratches originated.

Retrieving the boat was even worse, it is surprisingly difficult to keep a flat bottom boat sliding square onto its trailer when there is nothing to guide it. Anyway, two major modifications later I have this problem fixed and the launching is easy now, even single handed.

There are only two rollers used at the very end of the trailer to assist the bow riding up, all the rest of the bunks are those slippery plastic extrusions and they work well.

I may include some pictures of this trailer later.

That’s the details so far on my boat, I will write something about the building sequence and some building hints in the next instalment.

Klaus