My Sea Pearl 21

[Meerkat]

Todd Bradshaw asked me how I liked the Sea Pearl 21 I once owned, so I thought I'd start a thread on it.

Aside from details of hull and tent color, this is what I had (mine was white with a navy blue tent and no wood rubrail/gunwhale):
http://www.marine-concepts.com/sp21jpgs/whisper.JPG
http://www.marine-concepts.com/sp21jpgs/steve.jpg
http://www.marine-concepts.com/sp21jpgs/bocagrd.jpg
http://www.marine-concepts.com/sp21jpgs/sp21.jpg
LOA: 21'-0"
DWL: 19'-0"
Beam: 5'- 6"
Draft (board up): 6"
Draft (board down): 2'-6"
Trailering weight: 600 Lbs.. (approx.)
Sail Area (std. Marconi Rig): 136 Sq. Ft.
Aft Cockpit Length: 6' - 6"
Center Cockpit Length: 10' - 0"
Mast Height Above DWL: 19' - 6"
Headroom under Convertible Cabin Top: 3' - 6"

The Sea Pearl is inspired by L. Francis Herreshoff's Carpenter design. I think she takes a few leaves out of Monroe's Egret too.

Ok, to my personal experiences. Lively, low initial stability. The aft cockpit is separated from the center well by a moulded bridgedeck, where the aft mast of the two masted cat ketch design stands. This made for one of the boat's best features: you could leave the transom mounted drain plug out (by accident or not) and find yourself with a bit of cool water to slosh your feet in the hot Florida sun, where I was living at the time (Clearwater). The center well was sparsely appointed and had nothing to get gear off her bottom - which could get wet from spray. If I had had the boat longer, I would have put duck boards in (and I think this has been addressed somewhat in later models). The little tent, which flipped up like a baby carriage's top ("pram") was easy to use and stow, even with the (almost mandatory) tonneau cover in place (to keep slop out of the non self-bailing, non-bilged well). Alas, my enjoyment of this boat was interrupted by the death of my mother and the end of a job in a market that was not computer programmer friendly.

Here's quite a tale for the would-be camp cruiser!: Shane St. Clair's Voyage Through America (http://www.marine-concepts.com/stories/shane.html) 5,000 miles in a Sea Pearl.

Marine Concepts (http://www.marine-concepts.com/index.html), makers of Sea Pearls. They now make a trimaran version!

[Meerkat]

Todd; Did you read this?

[Todd Bradshaw]

Yes, thanks for posting it. The last thing I read about them was the review years ago in the "Small Boat Journal" (before it turned into utter crap and went down the tubes). It sounded like a fun boat and as I remember they liked the performance. Then again, not long after that review a friend called me and asked if I wanted to buy the magazine (not a copy of it, the business - as if I ever had any money), so they might have been suffering from bad judgement at the time...

I can't say the trimaran version ever tripped my trigger from a visual standpoint. It really did strike me as looking like they had added training wheels to a perfectly good boat, but I liked the look of the original. Too many boats, too little time, money, storage space, etc.