Designing the Backwoods Drifter

Another Mississippi Backwoods Drifter is currently coming together in the shop, this one for a customer in Louisiana. I'll update on this particular project as it nears completion, but writing about the sharpie type of sailboat yesterday got me thinking about this particular design again.

The latest Backwoods Drifter under construction

A Flat-Bottomed Design:

Yesterday I wrote about a unique type of sailboat with a flat bottom, called a Sharpie. Flat-bottom craft of many other sizes and types have been around a lot longer than the specialized sharpie sailing vessels. As a stable cargo carrier nothing beats a flat bottomed vessel and ancient versions have been unearthed throughout the world and are still found in use today, from giant barges pushed or pulled by diesel towboats to the ubiquitous outboard-driven john boat skiffs that are so popular among fishermen.

In 1998 I built a 12-foot stitch and glue wooden john boat for my father to replace the aging and heavy fiberglass model he had owned since my childhood. This older johnboat was a better design for creek fishing than many of the newer models available today, as it was narrow and therefore easier to paddle than john boats designed strictly for accommodating an outboard motor. I based the new wooden boat loosely on the lines of this older johnboat, staying with the 12-foot overall length, the 30-inch maximum width on the flat bottom hull, and the maximum beam at the gunwales of 40-inches. Although my dad used it with a 3.5 hp outboard for lake fishing, my canoeing buddy, Ernest Herndon and I took it out for a paddle of several miles on a large lake and found it quite easy to move along. Ernest asked me if I could design a similar boat with double ends, like the original johnboats and bateaus from the days before the advent of outboard motors. The result of this casual conversation, completed a few weeks later, was the original Backwoods Drifter, which turned out to be everything Ernest and I expected and more.

Ernest Herndon’s enthusiasm for this boat remains strong ten years later, and he has used it for countless day trips and a few multi-day river camping trips across the Deep South. Experienced canoeists and kayakers might at first glance look at this flat-bottomed design and dismiss it as oversimplified and unsophisticated. But besides the barge and johnboat, flat bottom craft are still used in rough, windswept bays and even in unprotected coastal waters. The flat-bottomed dory is one type that can handle breaking waves, and some of these are used off surf-bound beaches and to negotiate some of the most difficult river rapids in conditions that would destroy most boats. And as I've already written, the Sharpie type of sailboat evolved as a flat-bottom working vessel designed to carry loads disproportionate to its size, but is still found in use as a cruising yacht due to its extreme shallow draft and seaworthieness.

The key to designing a good flat-bottomed boat is incorporating the right amount of rocker in the bottom and flare in the sides for the intended purpose. Extreme rocker along the bottom is good for rough water and quick maneuverability, such as in rapids, but the trade off is decreased tracking ability, and load-carrying capacity. As the speed and ease of paddling increases with waterline length, it is an advantage to have a fairly long waterline with just enough rocker at the ends to allow quick turning. A strong upswept sheer with raised bow and stern can be an advantage in a choppy, breaking sea, but too much freeboard in the ends creates excessive windage and makes the boat hard to control in breezy conditions. Since the Backwoods Drifter is designed for quieter, more protected waters, the sheer has been kept a bit flatter and the ends, though square, are substantially narrower than the amidships sections.

Some might wonder why not bring the ends to a point, like a canoe or a pirouge, but to do so in such a short length would compromise a lot of the stability of this boat. One of the chief advantages of the design over a canoe is the stand-up stability. With a bottom that is still 18 inches wide at each end, the Backwoods Drifter is much more stable than a canoe this short, which is why most canoes are at least 14 feet or longer. Unlike in a canoe or pirouge, in the drifter you can stand in any part of the bottom or sit right out on the end platforms without fear of capsize.

This photo of a finished Drifter shows the long flat midships section

On the subject of stability, the flat-bottom design, of course, has lots of initial stability. Although many flat-bottom boats are lacking in secondary stability, that doesn’t have to be the case if the right amount of flare is incorporated into the hull sides. This flare allows the boat to be paddled in a “heeled-over” angle, putting the chine edge into the water to form a “V,” which aids in tracking, and providing a stable surface for the boat to grip the water in this position. The Backwoods Drifter is stable on its side right up to the point where the gunwale dips into the water. Paddling in the leaned position is ideal for solo river travel, as you can reach the water easier and use a guide or J-stroke to paddle on the low side of the boat.

The symmetrical ends and sliding middle seat makes it easy to set up the Backwoods Drifter for solo or tandem paddling. A solo paddler can sit on the middle seat with it moved aft or with two paddlers one can sit on one of the platforms (which would then become the stern) with the forward paddler on the middle seat slid to the forward position. Since like a canoe, both ends are the same, either end of the boat can be the bow or stern. On a gentle flowing backwoods stream like Mississippi’s Black Creek – the kind of waterway this boat is perfect for – one can sit or stand, paddle leaned or upright, and spin around to drift backwards or turn in slow circles while looking up at the overhanging trees and daydreaming. On such streams the boat allows you to become one with the water, and it's this connection that is what backwoods drifting is all about.

If you want to see more photos of this design you can find them on my Backwoods Drifter page.

What is a Sharpie?

A 28-foot Egret Sharpie pulled right up to a beach

I was talking with another Wharram enthusiast friend of mine the other day on the phone and mentioned something about Reuel Parker and his sharpie designs, expecting that anyone interested in sailing would be familiar with them. But, even more so than multihulls, the sharpie as a unique type of sailing vessel that evolved to suit a particular need in a specific locale is not widely written about in modern sailing literature. The sharpie is not an all-around, general purpose type of craft, and those who sail and build them do so because they understand their unique capabilities and limitations and find them ideal for their purpose.

For much of the kind of cruising I like to do, in the off-the-beaten track areas of the Gulf of Mexico where there are many low-lying islands and shallow water bays, the sharpie would be ideal for my needs too, so I've have spent many hours studying sharpie designs and reading anything available that I could find about them. Coming from a sea kayaking background, having traveled thousands of miles of coastline in such a simple, lightweight craft in which water depths can generally be disregarded, it was natural that I was drawn to the sharpie type when my interest turned to sailboats. No sailboat can go everywhere a 17-foot kayak can go, but the sharpie is one type that can navigate extreme shoal water and be safely beached, even in the larger designs.

Many of these designs are so appealing and so simple and inexpensive to build that if my needs for a boat were simply to cruise the local waters of the Gulf coast and the Florida Keys, I would be building one today. The only limitation of the sharpie type is in long, bluewater passages, as they must be quite large to be safe for this kind of sailing. But according to those who have done it, even a large sharpie can be built in a fraction of the time and for much less money than any other wooden boat of the same size. The reason for this is in the design. Sharpies were developed in the mid-19th century as no-nonsense working vessels built by the end-users, who did not have the refined boatbuilding skills or the time to build complex, round bottomed hulls. The sharpie as a type is characterized by the flat bottom, and it is this flat bottom that allows extreme shallow draft and great load carrying ability - not to mention easy construction out of common building materials. This made them perfect for the needs of the east coast oyster industry before sails were replaced by the internal combustion engine.

Sharpies also proved to be fast and handy under sail, making them even better suited for their tasks as workboats, and also leading to their adaptation as cruising and racing yachts. The type was made famous in time by designers like Howard L. Chapelle and examples such as Commodore Ralph Munroe's Egret, a 28-foot double ender designed specifically for the shallow inlets of south Florida and the rough Gulf Stream.

At first glance, one would think that the flat-bottomed hull would be totally unsuitable for rough water, and it's true that pounding can occur, especially while motoring on modern sharpies. But under press of sail, when the hull is heeled well over, the hard chine between hull bottom and topsides presents a nice V-shape to the waves. This hard chine aides in preventing leeway and most designs have retractable centerboards or leeboards for better windward performance where the water is deep enough. The only real limitation for offshore use is the fact that most designs are not self-righting like deep-keeled monohulls, due to having a higher center of gravity with their ballast inside. This is the trade-off for shallow draft, but for most coastal and short distance island-hopping where weather windows can be taken advantage of, it is not an issue.

Quite a few modern designers offer their renditions of the sharpie type for those who want to build, but one designer who stands out in his knowledge of these boats is Reuel B. Parker, who literally wrote the book on them:

"FAST, SEAWORTHY, ECONOMICAL, STABLE, EASY TO BUILD, floats on a heavy dew..." These are the sharpie superlatives from the back cover of Reuel B. Parker's book about the history, design, theory and construction methods for a unique type of American sailing vessel:

The Sharpie Book is a complete overview of the type and begins with the history and evolution of sharpies and details several of the more famous examples and how they were used. This is followed by a description of the traditional methods of construction used to build working sharpies for those inclined to build one the old way. But the heart of the book focuses on the methods and materials of modern sharpie construction, and this is one book that has enough detail, including lines and offsets, to build the featured boats without the need for additional plans. Parker even includes instructions on sailing and handling the boats, as well as long term maintenance. The models offered in the design pages range from a simple 14-foot Flatiron Skiff to such cruising designs as the 36-foot San Juan Double-ended Sharpie and the 38-foot Nonpareil Sharpie Yacht.

Construction details for 28-Egret Sharpie from The Sharpie Book

A 28-foot Egret Sharpie floating in mere inches of water

Some day I hope I'll have an opportunity to build one of these sharpie designs, either for a customer or to sail myself. There's a lot of appeal in the simplicity of a 25-30-foot sharpie that can float in less than a foot of water and be trailered anywhere in the country for exploring new cruising areas. While the Tiki 26 catamaran I'm building is lightweight, shallow draft, and can be trailered, getting it from trailer to water or vice versa will likely be a half day ordeal. With a sharpie like the Egret above, you just step the two unstayed masts and back it down the ramp like launching a runabout. Reading The Sharpie Book and looking a road atlas with all the places reachable by trailerable sailboat will definitely get you to dreaming.

For more on Reuel B. Parker's designs, visit his website: http://www.parker-marine.com/index.htm

Raka Epoxy

In my last post about the debate among traditional boatbuilders regarding the use of epoxy resin, you could see two brands of epoxy formulated for boatbuilding in the photo. One, of course, is the well-known and widely popular West System, and the other, in the plastic one-gallon jugs is Raka Epoxy as shown above.

For about 8 years now, Raka has been my epoxy of choice. Before that I used System Three epoxy almost exclusively, and of course, I've used a fair amount of West System. Like many, I believed that the major companies like West and System Three were the only ones that could be trusted, but then I began to meet and talk with other boatbuilders who were using Raka for both large and small projects. Everyone that used it liked it, and they were saving a lot of money on their materials lists as Raka has been consistently less expensive than the big name formulations. What finally convinced me of its suitability for building boats was the Bolger Nymph dinghy that my brother started building with this epoxy, but later abandoned before finishing the project. He had assembled the hull and laminated the fiberglass sheathing over the exterior, and then left the hull with the unpainted epoxy turned upside down out in the weather for more than a year. When he later gave me the hull so I could finish it and use it for a tender to my sailboat, Intensity, I examined the epoxy coatings and fillets and found nothing wrong with them at all. I completed the boat using the Raka epoxy he had left over, and it is still in service today.

After that experience I began using Raka to rebuild the interior of Intensity, then to build several small boats, including a few Backwoods Drifters. I found I preferred Raka epoxy for many reasons, and price was the least of them. For one thing, the viscosity is better for coating wood and wetting out fiberglass. I found this epoxy to excel at clear-coating wood that would later be finished bright, with varnish over the epoxy. There was less discoloration and darkening of the grain than with the epoxies I had used previously. I've also found that Raka epoxy has less tendency to blush when curing, especially in the often humid conditions I work in here in Mississippi. I have yet to have a failure to cure or a bad batch, and as long as I've been using it every order of Raka epoxy has performed the same. I can discern no difference in the strength of cured joints compared to the other epoxy brands, and I have never had a failure of any joint made with it.

The basic Raka formulation is mixed in a 2:1 ratio, using the 127 resin, and two choices of hardeners: the 610 fast and the 606 slow. Raka offers other formulations with different properties, but I've found that these are all I need. The fast hardener is excellent in cold weather or for small, easily handled jobs in hot weather. The slow hardener is what you need for big laminating jobs where you need more working time, especially in hot weather. The two hardeners can also be combined in different combinations in larger batches, yielding a medium curing speed.

To learn more about Raka epoxy you can go to the company website and read the user manual: http://www.raka.com/UserManual.html There you will find a product description as well as instructions for proper use of the material. Raka is based in Ft. Pierce, Fl and the product is not found in retail stores, but can be ordered directly from Larry, the owner, by calling the telephone numbers on the website.

For another opinion on different epoxy formulations, read the results of this test performed by a wood-epoxy composite kayak builder on the One Ocean Kayak website. You can see how Raka performed as compared with the top name-brand epoxies.

http://www.oneoceankayaks.com/Epoxtest.htm

http://www.oneoceankayaks.com/Epoxresl.htm