20 Facts About Phil Bolger

Philip C Bolger was a prolific American boat designer, who was born and lived in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Phil Bolger began work full-time as a draftsman for boat designers Lindsay Lord and then John Hacker in the early 1950s.

Phil Bolger subsequently designed more than 668 different boats, from a 114-foot-10-inch replica of an eighteenth-century naval warship, the frigate Surprise, to the 6-foot-5-inch plywood box-like dinghy Tortoise.

Phil Bolger advocated the use of traditional sailing rigs and leeboards.

Phil Bolger was a prolific writer and wrote many books, the last being Boats with an Open Mind, as well as hundreds of magazine articles on small craft designs, chiefly in Woodenboat, Small Boat Journal and Messing About in Boats.

Phil Bolger died on May 24,2009, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Phil Bolger was unconventional in many ways and, among many large boats, yachts and custom designs, took an interest in what he termed "evolving crafty ways of building boats".

However, Phil Bolger designed many other boats using this building technique, including the ocean crossing AS-39 as well as a significant number of other boats.

Phil Bolger put a lot of thought into relatively cheap, high-performance boats.

Phil Bolger is well known for designing a series of single chine sharpies, typically long and narrow with a flat bottom.

Phil Bolger is particularly known for his Square Boats.

Phil Bolger reasoned that a simple rockered bottom and vertical sides gives the most volume, and form stability, on a given beam.

Phil Bolger further reasoned that the curve of side and bottom should match as much as possible to reduce turbulence.

Phil Bolger further reasoned that the sharpie was an ideal shape for a trailer sailer with either leeboards or bilgeboards to provide lateral plane.

Phil Bolger felt that the traditional sharpie shape Chapelle had documented based on traditional New England sharpies was inefficient and prone to causing steering difficulties.

Phil Bolger evolved the concept of traditional sharpies and by squaring off the bow and stern to give the longest useful waterline.

Phil Bolger championed leeboards as low-tech and practical, to the chagrin of many yachties.

Phil Bolger concluded that a single leeboard is sufficient in many cases on small boats, and that rigs could be stepped off the centerline without much effect on performance.

Phil Bolger used traditional rigs, from the simplest "Cat rig" through sloops, many yawls and schooners at a time when almost all other designers were concentrating purely on racing rule derived sloops.

Phil Bolger is further very clear in explaining the mistakes and corrections he made in each case, and why.