… a sandbagger, or oysterbagger, or waterbagger; plaything for summertime practitioners of Phillipe Petit physics. Fotos compliments of Richard Dorfman, circa 2002. If you know him, you’ll recognize him crewing this sandbagger, a vessel type once almost as common as geese in New York Bay; certainly more common than puffins here.
Note the bowsprit length is about 2/3s the length of the hull. If I read the documentation correctly, the bowsprit projects 12′ and the boom extends up to 8′ aft of the stern; i.e., actual loa is more than double the vessel waterline loa of 18.’ The mast tops at 28.’ Initally, the shallow draft hull design allowed sandbaggers to get to the oyster beds; then the tremendous sail area got the bagged oysters quickly to market to fetch the highest price. Ballast then was bags filled with oysters.
To paraphrase Richard, no sand filled the bags in Puffin for this race, but water. Water bags are easier to toss, don’t sink when you capsize, hurt less when your shipmate tosses one on your foot, etc. “Switlik makes water bags for the Bull and the Bear and they lent us some of their old bags. We had at least 10 bags.”
Quoting more Richard, “This was 2002. The shots of us racing were taken by Capt. Steve Cobb, captain of Wavertree in July 2000. The other photos show details of the boat just before she was towed to DeRouville’s boatshop in NJ for a refit, and the in-water shots were taken at the marina nearby where we rigged her and did a shakedown.”
Anyone know of sandbagger races near the sixth boro or anywhere else? Looks like beamy fun.
Coincidentally, I saw Puffin in a now-closed (at least it was when last I saw it) Freeport maritime education center seven or eight years ago. Anyone know if Puffin‘s been afloat more recently? Thanks to Richard for all these pics.
Here’s an informative historical page on these “things of small body and great wings” along the Hudson. Last time I looked a puffin in the eye, I saw great body and whirring wings. Maybe this vessel would be better called mollymawk.
9 comments
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January 26, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Turinas
What a great little boat. A real beauty and looks like a lot of fun to sail.
January 26, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Daniel Meeter
Hoe prachtig een schipje. I wonder why gaff-rigging. What are all the benefits? I’m sure there are many, I just don’t know what.
January 27, 2009 at 9:05 am
Michael
Wonderful little boat! But hey, Puffins aren’t rare here, they’re just tough to get close enough to for recognition. November-April we see them out east on the inner bays. They’re small and they’re fast!
January 27, 2009 at 9:32 am
BC
Gorgeous boat, thanks for putting up the pics. Daniel: my (uneducated) guess is that given (a) large sail plan and (b) somewhat unwieldy moveable ballast arrangement, a gaff rig lowers the center of effort and makes the boat a bit more manageable, compared to a bermuda rig (but not nearly as efficient on a beat…).
October 31, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Richard Dorfman
These boats evolved since the 1860’s, hence the gaff rig.
January 27, 2009 at 11:05 am
Mage Bailey
She reminds me of the old America’s Cup 12 meter boats. Giant sails on tiny clean lined hulls.
January 28, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Daniel Meeter
Thanks BC
October 13, 2016 at 9:31 am
Sean van Weers
A very beautiful example of a sandbagger, and not such a big one. My companion and me were wondering if there is any documentation from this sandbagger regarding the linesplan and table of offsets. we would realy like to build one, but we have not managed yet to find any of these plans on the web
Greetings from the Netherlands, where there are no sandbaggers sailing yet.
October 14, 2016 at 10:18 am
tugster
Sean– I’m traveling but will research yr Puffin question when I’m home, after the 25th.