I was very pleased last year to acquire a John Welsford designed boat. It is 12’ long and around 4’5” in the beam. The builder, Leon Paterson, bought the plans and build it beautifully in 1995 - light, but durable. He had named the boat “Phaedirean” and he assured me it was a ‘Janette.’  Phaedirean was his family name and was Welsh for Paterson. The boat plans had been lost in the Christchurch earthquakes after Leon had to abandon his house and move to Rangiora.  Because of this it was a bit up in the air as to whether it was actually a Janette or the earlier Welsford design, the Jane.

I had been sailing at Pleasant Point Yacht club for about three years and took notice of the boat, admiring the lines and performance. I said to Leon that if he ever wanted to sell her to let me know. Sometime last year he said he had decided to retire from sailing (84’s not a bad age) and would I like her. Well of course I would! But with a stable of three boats already I didn’t think I would stand a hope in heck of sneaking another one into the barn.

I’m getting a bit older myself and the ‘Finn’ was more than a handful to get in and out of the water. How things turn out as someone came to my house right at that time and said they must have the ‘Finn’. Who was I to argue, so now being down to only two in the stable the ‘Janette’ must take its new place? The (Chancellor of Exchequer) wouldn’t know the difference between a Finn or a Janette?

The main reason I’m putting pen to paper is that in our Group, Canterbury Classic Yachts there are now three of these boats. The picture (left) shows the Janette as I got it.  The rig is a slightly cut down “Europe” sail with a Sunburst mast. It’s a handful, but it goes very well in the right conditions. It out-points other similar boats and leaves the shellback fleet well in its wake. 

Being a fan of the classic nature of a boat (as well as enjoying the cruising aspects of such craft) I thought I would try my Shellback (SB) rig on the Janette. It was nowhere near as quick with this rig and doesn’t point as high, but I found it held its own with the other SB’s and it wasn’t as demanding with the reduced rig.  It has a nice classic look. I can now call it my “B” rig and I can swap the rig between my SB and the Janette. The Europe sail (L) is around 75 sq ft and the shellback is 54. With the SB rig it is so easy to set up as it is free standing. I did break a mask in a blow one race-day but it was my fault as I hadn’t made a good job of the mast laminations - I hope to have cured this with another mast rebuild. 

John Welsford designed the original boat in 1985 and called it “Jane”. Four years later he made some adjustments to the plan and then called it the ‘Janette’. If you have a boat with a beam less than 4’5” (1.34m) you have a ‘Jane. The design plan calls for 76 sq ft of sail. So if you’re not a (wooss.) Like me you may want to persevere with the larger sail. I quite like the option of both and may choose the larger rig on a 5k sunny warm day. Otherwise I’m out there whenever.....

Regards, Ian Kington

This post first appeared last year in the online periodical "Small Boats Monthly" which is published by Wooden Boat Magazine in the USA.

Introduction (by Neville Watkinson)
I have always had a hankering to own and sail a sharpie. There’s some elemental appeal in the simple, flat bottom, shallow draft hull shape and free standing rig that conjures a combination of the ability to explore with easy handling. For years I carried around photo-copied sharpie plans from Howard Chappelle’s American Small Sailing Craft as inspiration.

At the time of the Christchurch earthquake I owned and operated a small joinery business supplying commercial kitchen equipment. With the literal collapse of many customers I realised our little enterprise might not survive. If I was going to build a boat this could be the last chance.

But what to build? I was aware of an American designer, Reuel Parker, who was a strong proponent of the Sharpie and sent for his book of plans. While many appealed, tucked in the back as an appendix were drawings of a beautiful 20’ sharpie with a schooner rig and a small trunk cabin like a proper yacht. This was Floridays, designed and built by Mark Fitzgerald.

I did an internet search and came up with nothing. I thought about other boat designs I had admired over the years, and while idly surfing the net I hit the website of Chuck Paine Yacht Design. I don’t know what drew me to the staff profile page, but the head draftsman was a fellow called Mark Fitzgerald who raised cattle as a hobby on a small holding called “Floridaze”. This was too much of a co-incidence.

​Correspondence ensued. Mark had built Floridays for himself 25 years before, and still owned her, but there were no suitable plans. He tried to sell me other sharpie designs, but none appealed. Somewhat tongue in cheek I asked if I could re-draw Floridays and have him review the plans. His opening reply started “You Kiwi’s are a cheeky bunch”, but went on to explain this was the best news he had heard in years. Apparently he was constantly being pestered for plans and couldn’t supply them. We quickly agreed how the process would proceed and I put pencil to paper. I didn’t know at the time, but Chuck Paine had just completed a superyacht build in New Zealand, for a client in Australia. Mark had done most of the design work and regards this as the pinnacle of his design career. He harboured a soft spot for our country.
I had another hurdle to overcome. I couldn’t devote workshop space to this project over an extended time frame, but I had a mezzanine floor above the office. It was under a low pitched roof and measured 7 metres by four. There was no standing headroom, but this would be my building space. Only a shallow hull could be accommodated. Oyster is the result.

​The low sharpie profile makes the floorboards the best seating for the crew. The mainsail sheet is led to the tiller.
The cockpit isn’t deep, so the floorboards, along with throw cushions and a broad coaming, provide comfortable, dry seating as well as a secure feeling while underway. Even as the wind strength increased soon after we got underway and both sails were reefed, it was not necessary sit out on the windward side decks to counter the heeling. If we had additional crew sitting in the cockpit forward of the bridge deck/mizzen partner, they too would have been very secure, dry, and well clear of the rigging as we sailed the boat from rear cockpit.

Both cockpits are long enough to sleep in—6′2-1/2″ forward and 5′11″ aft—but the available spaces in the forward cockpit, either side of the centerboard trunk, have maximum width of about 22” and the aft cockpit has a 4’2″ maximum width. The limited space would be rather restrictive for sleeping. It would be a much more practical proposition to carry a tent and camping equipment on board for parking the crew onshore overnight. The generous space under the fore deck and in the enclosed aft compartment provide adequate out-of-the-way stowage for cruising and camping gear.

Schooner Rig