When I was in Sea Scouts in high school, I got to sail a Lightning, and it became the standard by which I have since measured all small sailboats. I have always wanted a small sailboat of my own but, as awesome as a Lightning is, it is too big and heavy for me to manage on my own. I had grown to hate dealing with trailers and stayed masts, and wanted something I could transport on top of the car. For many years, I searched for the perfect boat, keeping a growing file of likely designs.I found some promising candidates in Reuel Parker's The Sharpie Book and Howard Chapelle's American Small Sailing Craft, but I discovered the boat of my dreams when I saw the lovely Drake 13 Sharpie from Selway Fisher.There are three Drake sharpies: an 11-footer, an 18-footer, and (for my needs) the "just right" 13′ boat. I ordered plans and they arrived from England, folded in a packet. While the four pages of drawings and eight pages of instructions are clear and well-detailed, it proved very helpful for me to have built a few boats: a Bolger Cartopper rowboat and a 13′ Pete Culler Butternut double-paddle canoe.
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Been looking for a first boat to build and the Drake 13 looks like the one.
Will be ordering the plans.
Walt
Would this be a good boat for a 220-lb person and an 8-hp motor?