This slightly
refined garvey, of approximately 16 feet overall
length, has a beam of 3 feet at the bows, 5 feet at
midsection and 3 feet 6 inches at the transom. The
draft is approximately 4 inches.
Her sides are 16 inches from deck to bottom
and they flare 6 inches, which gives her a bottom of 4
feet 6 inches breadth at the midsection.
[NOTE... this seems to be a typo. The
drawings are marked with 22 degrees flare, or six
inches per side, giving a midsection beam at
the floor of 4 feet. If the flare is only 3 inches
per side, the angle must be approximately 11
degrees. There's nothing wrong with less flare, as
long as you adjust what is shown in the drawings.
The boat with less flare will have more stability.
Perhaps I can resolve this with a model. A
difference in flare will affect sheer and rocker
but not the panel shapes shown below].
Flare of 11 degrees = 4' 6" bottom width
at midsection
Flare of 22 degrees, as drawn = 4' at
midsection
Although the old garvies carried the
conventional gaff cat rig, I prefer the sprit
leg-o'-mutton sail once used on the Mosquito and
Cricket boats of Atlantic City [dating from
1895-1900].
No stays or shrouds are used with such a rig
and the butt of the mast is soaped or greased so it
will turn and allow the sail to pull the sprit to
leeward. The forward end of the sprit is supported by
an outhaul which leads to a cleat at the after end of
the centerboard trunk, permitting adjustment of the
draft of the sail at any time.
The design was worked out by rule-of-thumb,
and on the front porch another boat bug and I built
her of cypress and copper fastenings. Click
here for larger image.
The sides were cut out of two 16-inch-wide
planks and these bent around three forms to fix the
angle of flare, their ends brought into place and held
there by a temporary transom at the stern and battens
at the bow. By nailing a stiff pine plank on top of
the forms and end supports, we maintained the
centerline. Click here
for larger image.
Side and bottom planking is 13/16 inch thick.
Permanent frames or battens were beveled and fashioned
out of 1-1/4 by 1 inch screen stock and fastened a
foot apart to the side planks. After fastening the
deck carlines and notching in the partner planks, the
two of us picked her up by the ends and turned her
over to plank the bottom.
We planked the bottom athwartship and,
instead of caulked seams, used the Japanese method,
grooving each plank with a brass screw-eye turned in a
small block of wood. We fastened a 13/16 by 5 inch
keel inside and a sand-shoe of similar dimensions
outside.
Building a board well to fit one of the
centerboards on hand, we fitted a shallow skeg and
stern post to the stern to support the secondhand
rudder, taking care that the skeg would not increase
her draft. The hull was thoroughly saturated with
kerosene before painting, to prevent undue swelling of
the cypress and to keep the wood from waterlogging. We
used 11/16 inch groove-and-tenon ceiling for the
decking and covered the same with 16 ounce duck, laid
in thick paint.
She took very little water and, as we were
anxious to learn how her centers balanced, we stepped
the mast, hoisted sail and were off! She carried just
the right amount of helm in the gentle breeze and we
patted ourselves on the back and admitted that we were
good! We were so tickled with the job that we hardly
noticed how quickly she had crossed the bayou. She
seemed to have speed.
Although her sail was setting abominably,
when we close hauled her she pointed higher than we
expected and seemed to foot well to windward. We began
to suspect that a garvey was something more than we
had anticipated. Although she was steady, she handled
smartly.
Not yet satisfied, we raised the centerboard
in the well and I'm a stone crab if the funny looking
little packet didn't work to windward with a draft of
less than four inches !
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