Terrapin 25                

To give credit where credit is due, these designs were initially inspired by Harry Sucher's wonderful drawings for a Terrapin schooner in his book Simplified Boatbuilding.  Research on the type turned up information (and a sketch) in Howard Chapelle's The National Watercraft Collection, garnered in turn from Small Yachts: Their Design and Construction, Exemplified by the Ruling Types of Modern Practice by C.P. Kunhardt (1886).  The type was a sharpie fishing smack used on the Chesapeake Bay and waters southward in the late nineteenth century. Chapelle described the Terrapins in detail in Paper 25: The Migrations of an American Boat Type (1961), including lines taken from a wreck.  I redrew the lines for Chapter One of The Sharpie Book, and designed my own series of TERRAPINS which are not, properly speaking, sharpies; but rather arc-bottomed batteaux with sharp, Veed entries.  They do look like the original type above the water line, and carry a similar rig, except for my smaller models, which are sloops of a rig from smaller Chesapeake craft of the same era (most notably the Chesapeake Flattie).

These renewed, modified versions came about in response to a client's request for an extreme shoal draft, low cost day-charter bareboat for the Indian River area of Florida's east coast.

Five models are available, from 16' to 42', for QUICK MOLDED construction.  Two hull models are available for the original 34 footer; a radius-bottom sharpie, and a radius-bottom V-bow batteau.  The sharpie would be cheaper and easier to build by a small margin, and a little faster off the wind than the batteau, which would be more weatherly, seaworthy and comfortable.

The boats are designed to be built almost entirely of generic plywood; either ACX, BCX, or BBOES (plyform), which is very inexpensive, and is made with water-resistant glue.  But the builder must keep in mind that higher quality materials may yield a more durable finished product.

Construction is the simplest possible in the cold-molded genre: the bottoms are double-diagonal planked using ripped plywood planks; topsides and decks are formed single-layer using full sheets of plywood.  The hulls are planked over longitudinals; there are no permanent frames, floors or cabin sole.  Bulkheads are filleted and taped in place after the hull is right-side-up.  Quick and clean!

The 34 footer has only 4'7" headroom, but has a large and comfortable interior none the less.  The 42 footer has full standing headroom.  The 16'er is a day-sailer; the 21- and 25-footers are comfortable, fast pocket cruisers.  The three smaller TERRAPINS are trailerable.  All are simple, safe and exciting to sail.  Though they look straight out of American heritage, they are surprisingly stiff, weatherly and fast.  They are pure simplicity.

The rig is traditional.  Spars can be made rapidly and easily from Douglas fir stock available in many commercial lumber yards (30' 6x6's are used for the 34's masts).  Masts may be laminated in halves for 3x6 stock (allowing some internal hollow introduced by Vee-cuts), or laminated hollow octagonal bird's mouth construction (best). The gaff rig is ultimate for this hull form, giving lots of drive down low, and presenting maximum sail area to the wind when running wing and wing. The hulls will easily surf off the wind beyond hull speed.

It is doubtful to us that more boat can be obtained for the money.  Materials costs for the original Tomfoolery, including sails, outboard motor and simple interior furniture were about $20,000 in early 1989.

We completed the first TERRAPIN 34 in July, 1989, built a custom TERRAPIN 25 prototype for a fiberglass production model (the SKIMMER 25) in 1991, and now offer the TERRAPIN 42 cruiser with standing headroom.  We completed the first 42, named Oyster, in Spring of 1994.  Designs for the 16 and 21 were completed in summer of 1993.  The first T-34, (Tomfoolery), has proven in sail trials to be a fast, stiff and weatherly sailor.  Her helm balances beautifully and she steers herself much of the time.  The vessel was unexpectedly powerful, but easy to handle by two competent sailors.  In 15 knots of wind she does 8 knots on a reach, beyond her hull speed, without putting her rail in the water!  The bateau hull punches into medium head seas without slowing down or throwing spray.  In short--the vessel is a DELIGHT to sail--and there is little in this world as beautiful as a gaff-rigged schooner!  In sail trials, the TERRAPIN 25 also showed herself to be fast and weatherly, rather shocking some sailors on the Chesapeake Bay and Florida's Indian River--perhaps they had never been passed and outpointed by a small gaff-rigged sloop!