Sea
Pearl
An Open Cruiser from Florida
by Dan and Judy Segal
An old review from the Small Boat Journal - August/September 1982
Sea Pearl
is built by George Jefferies and Ron Johnson, the two-man team who
make up Marine Concepts of Tarpon Spriings, Florida. The boat
went through several evolutions before the builders settled on the
current deck configuration, cat ketch rigs, leeboards, and tombstone
transom.
Nearly
double-ended, with a relatively narrow 5'6" beam on 21 feet overall,
and flared, rounded topsides, Sea Pearl gives the impression of a miniature
whaleboat, but in fact has the flat narrow bottom of a dory. She is
a scaled up model of L. Francis Herreshoff's 18 foot Carpenter dory/whaleboat/tender
designed in 1929. The flat bottom makes her easy to beach - something
you'd want to do often in this handy boat - and gives her an unloaded
draft of about five inches.
Sea Pearl
is not a large boat despite her 21 foot length. Being narrow on the
bottom and light, she feels tender at first and is sensitive to crew
weight in light air - both fore and aft, and athwartships. She sails
best when well heeled, and heels easily. On the other had, she stiffens
up considerably with her lee rail about four inches clear of the water,
and it's difficult to get her to heel any farther. We were, admittedly,
skeptical of this characteristic, as you may be; and when Ron Johnson
boasted of it while we sailed an unloaded Sea Pearl in a 15 knot breeze,
what could we do but slide down to leeward (one at a time) to check?
Sure enough, with four of us on the lee deck, we never got the rail
under, and the boat just hummed along like the proverbial freight train.
With the sheets started, a good breeze, and heeled to her lines, the
bow wave laps up under the sheer rail and feels as though it will lift
her up on plane - although it never did. The hull shape also seems
to give Sea Pearl some lift to windward; boards up, we were able to
sail up to a beam reach with little slippage to leeward.
The dory-whaleboat
combination gives the boat considerable load-carrying ability. We sailed
one Sea Pearl to windward in a 15 knot breeze and 1 to 2 foot chop
with three people, a full sized fully loaded cooler, a three man tent,
four sleeping bags, a couple of charcoal grills and charcoal, a two
burner Coleman stove, assorted personal duffle, and a load of firewood
- all in a 650 pound boat! Despite the load, she felt buoyant and responsive,
steering quickly and positively. She threw some spray, however, and
with little flare in the bow and low freeboard, she is not a dry boat
in a chop. The spray does stay well forward though, and she shoulders
through easily, with a rather sinuous feel. It would be great fun to
snake her through a bit of sea.
If a wave
top slopped over the six inch bulwark that surrounds the boat, there
would be no trouble. Sea Pearl is three-quarter decked, the exception
being an open hold amidships between the masts. Her cockpit, a footwell
molded into the deck aft of the mizzen, drains through a removable
plug in the transom just above the waterline. This footwell is tee-shaped,
allowing space against the transom for standard outboard fuel tanks.
They're out of the way there and out of the inside of the boat.
The cockpit
is the best place to be when Sea Pearl is sailing. You get a fine feel
for the length and shape of her, and for the grace of her motion through
the water from back there. All the fittings are good-sized, and there's
wisdom in their choice and placement. The mainsheet, for instance,
is a single, heavy line, leading through an eye just forward of, and
in line with, the mizzen mast, and belaying on a bronze cleat to starboard.
At first this seems a petty irritation; you're always reaching around
the spar to find the sheet, and the sheet being single-part, you always
have to take a turn around the cleat to take some strain off (this
has been changed on newer models .. ed). Then you find yourself using
the mast as a bollard to take the strain, and it takes just enough
off so you can simply step on the sheet to keep it from running out.
You're never even tempted to belay it anymore - yet you still have
a feel for the tension in the sheet. Similarly, the leeboard pendants
have wooden handles knotted in the ends and belay in Clam Cleats angled
just right for a person sitting on the opposite side of the cockpit.
It's easy to get the rhythm of tacking: helm down, cross the cockpit
as you let one board drop, haul up the other as you settle into your
new seat. The mizzen sheet, too, is right at hand. It leads through
a stainless bail on the rudderhead and belays in a Clam Cleat on the
tiller. The pendant for the kick-up rudder also belays on the tiller.
But if the
cockpit is the control center, the midships hold is the key to Sea
Pearl's versatility. It is the social center, the stowage center, and
tented in the the acrylic pram hood ( optional ), it becomes the cabin
and stateroom. The hold is just deep enough and the coaming around
it just low enough to make sitting on the side deck with your feet
on the bottom truly comfortable. Stowage is arranged under the side
decks behind teak battens screwed into the deck supports. But the entire
inside of the boat is open from the hold, and long gear like oars and
boat hooks stow best aft, under the cockpit seats. The pram hood stows
up under the foredeck, zipped up in a protective cover to keep it from
snagging things when it isn't in use. An acrylic tonneau cover is supplied
to cover the hold in bad weather or for trailering.
There's
3 1/2 feet of headroom in the hold with the pram hood up, enough to
sit upright. You sleep on vinyl-covered, 2 inch PVC foam cushions (optional),
laid over the carpeted bottom. This berth is large and comfortable
for one person, but it was uncomfortably narrow for two. We suggest
carrying a tent and sleeping ashore if the skipper and crew are not
extremely friendly, although the cockpit sole is 6.5 feet long, and
one could sleep there - with an eye on the weather (or an optional
boom tent - ed.). In order to ensure a tight fit of both the hood and
the tonneau, the builders keep a mock up of the hold coaming at the
canvas shop.
As troublesome
as it may seem at first, the split rig is wonderful for these boats,
allowing some really easy handling, Under it, Sea Pearl will sail herself
from a beam reach on up to a beat with the main sheeted a bit flatter
than the mizzen. The helm doesn't even need to be lashed. She can also
be steered somewhat with the mizzen sheet; just take it forward with
you when you need to find some duffle or get the anchor ready. The
boats heave to easily by sheeting the mizzen flat and letting the main
luff, though they sail backwards that way at a knot or two. Of course,
you can really show off in a boat that sails well backward, as Sea
Pearl does; it's nice to have reverse! You also leave the mizzen up
when sleeping aboard at anchor. With crew weight forward holding her
flat bottom underwater and the mizzen keeping her weathervaned into
the wind, she makes a fine quiet cradle. Unfortunately, the split rig
on a boat this light can also make her slow in stays, and sometimes
you have to slack the mizzen or back the main to come around really
smartly. It seems a reasonable price to pay.
When there's
not enough wind to sail, you clamp a small outboard on the transom
in place of the rudder or break out the oars. (The newer boats have
rudder or side mounted motor brackets that do not require the removal
of the rudder - ed.) The Sea Pearl is not a difficult boat to row once
you get her moving. |
