Sharpies in Other Areas
The Carolina Sounds area was the last place in which the sharpie was extensively employed. However, in 1876 the sharpie was introduced into Florida by the late R. M. Munroe when he took to Biscayne Bay a sharpie yacht that had been built for him by Brown of Tottenville, Staten Island. Afterwards various types of modified sharpies were introduced in Florida. On the Gulf Coast at Tampa two-masted sharpies and sharpie schooners were used to carry fish to market, but they had only very faint resemblance to the original New Haven boat.
FIGURE 19.—Sharpie yacht Pelican built in 1885 for Florida waters. She was a successful shoal-draft sailing cruiser. (Photo courtesy Wirth Munroe.)
The sharpie also appeared in the Great Lakes area, but here its development seems to have been entirely independent of the New Haven type. It is possible that the Great Lakes sharpie devolved from the common flatiron skiff.
The sharpie yacht was introduced on Lake Champlain in the late 1870's by Rev. W. H. H. Murray, who wrote for Forest and Stream under the pen name of "Adirondack Murray." The hull of the Champlain sharpie retained most of the characteristics of the New Haven hull, but the Champlain boats were fitted with a wide variety of rigs, some highly experimental. A few commercial sharpies were built at Burlington, Vermont, for hauling produce on the lake, but most of the sharpies built there were yachts.