Neville Watkinson wanted to build a ‘sharpie’ — a shallow-draught sailing boat — and was impressed by the design of the sharpie ketch Floridays from the drawing board of well-known US designer Mark Fitzgerald, which he had seen on the internet.
Neville contacted Mark, who said that he didn’t have comprehensive plans for the boat, as he had the only example, which he still owns, built 30 years before under his direct supervision. He had been contacted by a number of prospective builders over the years — including ones from this part of the world — who had been interested in purchasing plans, but it wasn’t viable for a very busy designer to spend significant time on a design that was never going to be put into commercial production. He generously said that Neville was welcome to use his basic design and suggested some modifications that he thought would improve it. They agreed to split the copyright of the final design.
A passion for boats
Neville has been interested in boats since an early age. One of the first things he ever made was a cardboard model of Captain Joshua Slocum’s 37-foot yawl Spray using the lines printed in Slocum’s book Sailing Alone Around the World.
Neville has designed half a dozen small boats over the years, most of which existed only on paper. When he was the proprietor of a clothing company in Auckland, he owned the, which he extensively rebuilt. He replaced a couple of the hull’s ribs, made a new keel, and recaulked and painted the kauri planking. He renewed all the rigging and recut the sails. After a couple of years of sailing , he had a good idea of what he liked in a boat and what he didn’t.
