A couple of months ago we accidentally bought a Munroe Egret. We had no intention of buying another boat right now but Egret is one of my favorite designs and one just happened to pop up on Craig's list not too far from our house. I've been interested in sharpies for a while and a couple of years ago Kristi got me The Commodore's Story by Commodore Ralph Munroe, designer of Egret. She also bought me plans for the Goat. I'm starting to see a pattern developing. The book is a fascinating account of the early settlers of Biscayne Bay (mid to late 1880s) and of the sharpies which Munroe adapted for the shallow and sometimes treacherous waters of Southeast Florida. Munroe designed Egret in 1886.
I've admired Dennis Bradley's beautiful Egret many times but never considered getting one as I thought all of the Egret replicas were built of wood. Now don't get me wrong, I love wooden boats but I don't think I'm up for taking care of a largish traditionally built one that stays out in the weather. So when the Craig's list ad said "fiberglass Egret" we had to go look ..... and buy. Someone built a handful of these in the 1990s. I know of one other that is being rebuilt at Cortez. I'm assuming it's from the same shop as it's hard to imagine there was more than one fiberglass Egret builder.
At DeSoto
Yep, she floats where the birds walk.
The boat is basically functional with all of the sailing related systems working well enough to get out sailing. She needs some freshening up and a good coat of paint inside and out. Our first outing was with the WCTSS to Cayo Costa. Dennis Bradley was there with his Egret so we got to do a bit of sailing together. How cool is it to sail with another Egret the first time out!
Denis Bradley's Egret passing us. Picture from the WCTSS trip album
Our boat needs a lot of hydrodynamic work to sail to her potential. We are dragging a giant, open outboard well, and the "foils" are very un-foily consisting of small, flat, triangular bilge boards with oyster encrusted leading edges. Needless to say Dennis was much faster and pointed a lot higher than us. A fair bit of that is skill as he's one with the Egret, having spent years fine tuning her to his liking. But it's good to see that there is potential for a decent turn of speed once all the important bits are up to snuff, skipper included.
On the beach at Punta Blanca, Cayo Costa
Kristi says she's a keeper.
Click below for more pics of our Cayo Costa trip.
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