The Garvey Saga #1 - by Duncan Blair
Three weeks ago I ran across a very interesting traditional boat type, sitting on a trailer in a driveway just around the corner from our newly purchased house.
I was smitten and I still am, even more so after doing some research—starting with Howard Chapelle.
The boat I discovered is a Garvey; see Photo #1 above.
History tells us that an Englishman named Gervas (Jarvis) Pharo came to North America in 1703 and settled in what is now New Jersey. He brought with him, in some form, the design for a boat that was known in England as a Punt. Once he had unpacked his belongings he began to build these boats, 321 years ago, in New Jersey.
Gervas’ design was well-suited for the shallow waters of the New Jersey coast; full of fish, oysters, crabs and mud banks. Their relatively long and narrow shape made them “suitable for maneuvering” in water less than two feet deep.
These boats have been described as “muscular work boats,” used for stalking and shooting water fowl, ferrying people, animals and many other types of cargo. They were also referred to as “ the clammers’ work scow.” Eventually these boats assumed the name of their builder—Gervas Pharo. “Gervas” morphed into “Garvey.”
The English propensity for mis-pronouncing words was alive and well more than three centuries ago.
Two hundred years after the Garvey sailing skiffs began to be built and put to work, their motorized descendants were used to bring illegal Canadian whisky ashore to New Jersey beaches, hauled in from Canadian schooners anchored offshore in International waters.
Their hull shape enabled them to carry heavy loads up shallow creeks and across tidal flats in order to avoid Customs and IRS scrutiny.
Drawing #1, taken from Chapelle’s American Small Sailing Craft, 1951, pg.58, shows the lines of a New Jersey Sailing Garvey, “Small Type”. Chapelle states that she would probably have had a spritsail.
The white, 16 foot long skiff with Florida registration shown in Photo #1 is a direct descendant of the boat type brought by Gervas Pharo, as is the Small Type boat shown in Drawing #1.
The Florida skiff is powered by a 30 H.P. outboard motor. Like all “descendants” over the decades Gervas’ original design acquired some new features—think of them as new DNA. In my opinion these new features were a useful improvement. A friend and respected advisor of mine recently suggested that I focus on making my posts shorter and that I should widen the focus to include boat types that that might well be traditional but were no longer powered by sail.
A few days after that conversation I saw the Garvey in Photo #1 and “the penny dropped”.
DEAD RISE
One of the distinctive features of the Florida Garvey in Photo #1 is dead rise, also called V bottom.
Drawing #2, also from Chapelle’s book cited earlier, shows “A yacht-like V bottomed Garvey, the most developed model of the type”.
Chapelle goes on to state that the V bottom became popular “apparently quite late, perhaps after 1900”, pg. 336.
In the context of the Garvey’s history, “quite late” would be 200 years.
SIDE BAR
Exactly how dead rise improves the performance of the garvey will be discussed in the second posting of The Garvey Saga, in January, available for Paid Subscribers. If you are interested in dead rise, or curious about the modern version of the Garvey, or if you have doubts about traditional boat types that have morphed into power boats, I invite you to become a Paid Subscriber.
For now, I will return to the new versions of the original sailing Garvey.
PRESENT DAY
Today, two respected boat designers, Reuel Parker and Douglas Hylan, have, independently of each other (as far as I know) developed designs for small, 11 feet and 15 feet long Garvey’s, built from modern materials while keeping the Garveys’ distinctive lines and sailing rigs. See REFERENCES below for contact information for Parker Marine Enterprises and Hylan & Brown.
Reuel Parker, a well-known sailor, boat designer, advocate for cold molded construction and author of The Sharpie Book, has two Garvey designs. One is a flat-bottomed, 11 1/2 feet long, sprit sailed Garvey with sail area of 38 square feet (see Drawing #3). The other is a 28 feet long, V bottomed , gaff-rigged sailing Garvey sloop (see Drawing #4). Parker Marine Enterprises sells plans from its headquarters in Ft. Pierce, Florida.
Hylan & Brown, boat designers and boat builders in Brooklin, Maine, are coming out with a 15 foot long, flat bottomed , sailing Garvey they call the Swan Point Skiff. See Drawing #5.
A few questions about the Garvey remain:
Q.#1. What, if anything, is the difference between a punt, a pram, a scow and a Garvey?
A.#1. I do not know for sure, but I think, given the long history and the vagaries of local terms, that there may be only small differences, if any.
A.#2. Pete Culler, if he were still with us he would probably have a much better answer.
Q.#2. Is the contemporary Jon Boat a Garvey?
A.#3. Yes, to me the jon boat is a Garvey, or at least “Garvey-ish”.
The next, and final installment of the Garvey Saga will deal exclusively with engine-powered Garveys used for work, racing and just messing around.
It will also deal with a new version of the Garvey, developed by Douglas Hylan, called the BEN Garvey. It is, in fact, the same boat shown in Photo #1, but photographed from a slightly different angle to better show the dead rise; in short a traditional sail powered workboat developed into an improved design, using modern materials and design concepts and powered by a four stroke O.B., which is all that is needed.
I want one.
PAU
Duncan Blair
As always, all opinions and ideas stated above are mine alone.
REFERENCES:
Photo #1. BEN Garvey—in the drive way with Bimini deployed.
Drawing #1. H. Chapelle, American Small SailingCraft, 1951, Pg. 58. Lines of a New Jersey sailing garvey, Small Type.
Drawing #2. H. Chapelle, American Small Sailing Craft. pg.337 A yacht like V bottomed garvey.
Drawing #3. Parker Marine Enterprises. Ft. Pierce, Florida. 11.5 foot, flat bottomed sailing Garvey.
Drawing #4. Parker Marine Enterprises. 28 foot, V bottomed, gaff rigged Garvey sloop.
Drawing #5. Hylan&Brown, boat designers/builders, Brooklin, Maine. Swan Point Garvey sailing skiff.
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