36-foot Commuter-style power sharpie   

This boat started life as a custom design for a Key West developer. We worked from sketches and photos of older boats and added some modern ideas and curvaceous “art-deco”-inspired forms. “Commuters” were classic early cabin cruisers used by prominent businessmen to come to work in style in the 1920’s. The “power sharpie” is an extreme shallow draft hull form of very light displacement. This specific hull is a modified sharpie form having a deep, short V-bottom bow, which flows aft-ward into a shallow arc bottom. While the model is not as sea-worthy as deep V shapes, it can be poled like a flats boat in a scant eight inches of water. This makes it an ultimate shallow-water “gunkholer,” bone-fishing boat, and wetlands explorer. The prototype “Magic” is used extensively in the Everglades and Florida Bay north of Key West. She is ideal for exploring wildlife in remote places, running up shallow rivers and mangrove creeks, anchoring behind keys and exploring deserted beaches that no other boat of this size and accommodation could even dream about approaching—and she is capable of staying there for days at a time.
The cabin provides six feet of headroom, and there are berths for four, plus a large galley and head with a shower. The cockpit is huge, with a PT boat-style helm station, and a large awning for shelter from the tropical sun. The boat is outboard-powered for simplicity, easy maintenance, and so the boat can be poled across bars and flats.
Construction is very simple, light, strong, fast—and inexpensive. The hull is planked with sheets of ½” plywood—two layers on the bottom laid at opposite diagonals, and one layer for the topsides, joined with butt blocks. The hull is built over ½” plywood bulkheads set up on a strongback. There are no frames or floors. Sheer clamps, chine logs and bilge stringers are ripped from conventional 2x4 stock. The deck and coachroof are foam-core plywood—1/4” over 1 ½” closed-cell polyurethane foam with 1/8” plywood headliners. Internal deck beams are sawn from 1 ½” spruce 2x12’s and are spaced between the two ply layers in the same layer as the foam. Fore-and-aft web frames are ¼” plywood and extend from bulkhead #2 to the transom. All blind compartments are foam-filled, giving the boat enough positive floatation to make her unsinkable—the foamed compartments also prevent vibration and noise from pounding. There is a huge 110g. fuel tank under the bridge deck, and two 30g. bladder-type water tanks under the settees. There is a large ice box, and a 30g. holding tank for the marine toilet. All exterior surfaces are covered with Xynole-polyester (Defender Industries) fabric saturated with epoxy. This composite is vastly superior to fiberglass as a covering system for cold-molded wood construction. Paint systems are linear-polyurethane outside and epoxy inside. Trim is varnished mahogany inside, and natural teak outside. Table, doors and drawers are varnished mahogany, except the entry door, which is teak. All hatches and portlights are opening. Gel-cell batteries are located aft of the fuel tank compartment under a water-tight hatch. Ceiling planking is varnished cypress. The cabin sole is teak and holly plywood. The entire construction process took eleven weeks for the prototype. Materials costs, including engine, tankage and awning, were about $25,000. For power we settled on the Honda 90 four-stroke. Steering is hydraulic, with a 24” stainless steel destroyer wheel. Single-lever control is Morse. “Magic” cruises at 19 miles per hour consuming slightly over 4 gallons per hour, and runs wide open at about 24 miles per hour.
Because of her extreme shoal draft and light weight, this design is not intended for use in rough water, for long off-shore passages, or for being driven hard for extended periods in high chop. She is, however, safe and comfortable, and capable of crossing the Gulf Stream to Cuba and the Bahamas in settled, predictable weather. And she has the fuel range to make such trips practical.