"His boats were usually close to perfect for whatever purpose he designed them, and in this case it was a design intended to ply the skinny waters where the mother ship could not go. The mother ship was the Walrus, designed for coastal exploration and the Carpenter as the perfect tender, designed to take over in the shallow waters. She was to have the sailing characteristics of a whaleboat, able to take a good sea and sail handily, while having the beachability of a dory. NOTE: Both of these boats are featured in Herreshoff's Sensible Cruising Designs." The rest of the history can be found at the Marine Concepts site www.marine-concepts.com/history.html

The Boat

The SeaPearl 21 is Cat Ketch rig, with self supporting masts, leeboards and canoe shaped hull. The Cat Ketch rig is easily trimmed and reefs by wrapping the sails around the mast. The folks at B and B Yachts, builders of the somewhat similar Core Sound 17 and 20 have a very nice discussion of the features of this rig at their site B and B Yachts. She draws about 6" with boards up and her flat bottom makes her very stable when beached.

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Here are a couple pictures of Bud and Rhoda Tritschler and Nutshell. Bud's seamanship is well known in the SeaPearl community and he is one of a handful of sailors that I know that depends totally on the built in rowing station and his oars for secondary propulsion. These photos show the simplicity of the SeaPearl under sail (I lifted the second from somewhere on the web). The SeaPearl's elegant simplicity has won over many sailors of more traditional boats. The Main and Mizzen sheets are lead to the aft cockpit and fall easy to hand. Down wind runs set wing-and-wing are a blast when you don't have to worry about stays, whisker poles and accidental gybes. The 6" draft , the kickup leeboards and kickup rudder make shallow water work a real joy. The lack of a keel makes her very easy to beach and launch.

Most SeaPearls have internal water ballast tanks. There have been many spirited discussions of whether to fill or not, but I find that full tanks slow down the boats response just a bit and help me to feel in better control.

In spite of her lack of external ballast the SeaPearl is fairly stable once she in underweigh. If caught out in too much wind, it is a easy matter to wrap the sails around the masts a couple times and enjoy a nice level, if wet trip home. Point her into the wind , sheet in the Mizzen and release the Main and she will heeve-to while you have a bit of lunch.