•Plywood Boats••Plywood Boats•|
I LIKE Phil Bolger's designs, and I've got plans for his AS19, AS29, and Jinni (a 16' two-masted sharpie). I've built models of the AS19 and the Jinni, equipped with junk sails, to test them out. Phil doesn't seem to like junk sails. But he has come around to the "Chinese gaff", a battened gaff sail with multi-part sheets. Bolger's Chinese Gaffer Contact him by mail to find out about plans prices or commissioning a design. Also, he has a 96 minute videotape, "Life With Lily," about their electric launch. Narrative by Phil, interiors of his boat "Resolution," tour of the local waters. He warns it is amateurish... $35 postpaid first class mail. His address is:
Contact Jim at:
One buck gets you his basic brochure with 16 boat designs: see some here. Read his boat essays on the Web here.
Kayak
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Chesapeake Light Craft System Three (Epoxies) MAS The Fiberglass Scrap Pile Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Explains Composites Bolger Plans from Dynamite Payson Annapolis Performance Sailing (Blocks and gear and stuff and really good prices) John's Nautical Links John
Winters'
Web Page
> Plans Plans Peero Plans < |
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- Cleats!
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MARC Pettingill's book, Building Sweet Dream, tells you how to build a small, elegant and lightweight canoe from a couple sheets of folded and twisted plywood.
 This type of small canoe (not in plywood, of course) was very popular in the USA about 100 years ago, and has always had a following in the UK. The book is published by Tiller Publishing (to order, 1-800-6TILLER) and any local bookstore can order it. |
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Marc Pettingill and one of his canoes at the 1997 Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival.
The scanned snapshot doesn't do justice to the finish on the boat, which is a wonderful blue with cream or tan inside. |
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DAVID Carnell is another interesting guy. His $200 Sailboat is based on Bolger's Featherwind plywood skiff and is designed to use a simple polytarp lug sail or a salvaged Sunfish rig. See his web page here. Plans are $20 from:
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Email him from his web site here or send a self addressed stamped envelope for photos and information. |
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These people have built their own boats using plans from Phil Bolger, Jim Michalak or other designers. They'd probably be ecstatic to talk about their boat(s) with you. You can email them, or in some cases phone them or connect to their web pages. Some might even have a boat for sale. As you can tell, some of them are true Bolger addicts. Others must have been born under the astrological sign of the Eclectic. |
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See John's work in the photos on the Chesapeake Light Craft pages, and in the WoodenBoat - "Building the Mill Creek" - and other articles. CLC sells his John's Sharpie and Eastport Pram designs with more to come. |
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I've built two Bolger designs:
Happy to show them to anyone visiting Muskegon. |
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Sadly, I had to sell the dories to feed my habit--just got too crowded around here. But they sure are fine boats. |
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Still trying to find a building space for the full size Sparkler in VA. |
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Bolger boats:
Non-Bolger boats:
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Also:
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James Richardson Designs built:
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The only Bolger boat I have now is the "$200 Sailboat", a modified FEATHERWIND. The original was my first Bolger boat. Then I built OTTER II. Other Bolger boats:
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I am looking to learn how to restore the boat to like new condition. Anyone knowing anything about this boat or any other working folding schooners please e-mail me. |
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Built:
Bought:
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Built:
I'm in the process of looking at building Micro Trawler, Glen-L's Cabin Skiff or an enlarged Diablo that I may be able to attach some sort of cabin to. |
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Having a Birdwatcher built by Nat Wilson, boatbuilder, Loch Broom, Ullapool. Birdwatcher Web site to appear shortly. Currently sailing a Selway Fisher designed Wren canoe with home designed sailing rig. Built by Tyrone Currie of Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland (http://www.tyrone.u-net.com/). |
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Bolger boats built (bbb)
Other boats built (obb)
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...to the Top
This is a Jinni. However, the rig and the cabin top are Jim Michalak's own additions. Jim's built three or four Bolger boats over the years and he likes to experiment. Since I created this page, Jim has trashed his Jinni in favor of a power sharpie (he needed the trailer, and Jinni was old and in need of too much work). Check out the original Jinni plan. The basic Jinni sharpie hull is everything below the white gunwale. She is said to be fast and to throw some spray in choppy water. But every slab-sided boat throws water when pushed into the waves. The stern hatch and watertight compartment, and a foredeck with flotation are both part of Bolger's design. With Bolger's normal rig you would see two sprit-boomed leg of mutton sails, the mainsail on a mast just above the numbers at the bow, and the mizzen, or dandy, at the extreme stern. Jim was experimenting with balanced lug sails made from
polytarp. He says he later decided this sail was maybe 25% too large
for the boat in all but the softest breezes so he sailed it with a reef
most of the time. But in general the balanced lug's a good sail: it's a
Chinese junk sail but without battens. No matter what the rig, I think Jinni
is a very pretty boat. |
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2.5 03/06/99
2.6 04/20/99
2.1 01/21/10
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