Phil Bolger Designs

Repost of Design page 1

I For the first of the Bolger Pages, I am starting with the recent article by Susanne Altenburger in Messing About in Boats, April 2010. This is about the Power Catamaran I had Phil design in 1985. The design requirements were : Shallow draft, good speed when light, ability to carry a big load - 5,000 lbs +, and a decent ride in 2’ chop. Protection from the elements and a big deck were also considerations. The clients had experience with barge type hulls, and did not want to go that way. Phil came up with this easily built, easily driven Power Cat, which I built in 1985-86. It was built mostly with 1/2” fir marine ply and white oak. We had the hulls fiberglassed by a local glass shop. Preservative was applied to the interior of the hulls, and the ventilation system Phil designed was built into each hull. The original design was for 22’, but we stretched her to 24’. The original 50 HP motors have been replaced several times, most recently this spring, 2010, with a pair of 50 HP evinrude E-Tec’s. The boat has been sunk several times, but has been refloated and repaired, and is still in regular use. The owner is still very pleased with the boat, and is looking forward to the coming season.

There is a MAIB web site, but they do not post recent articles. The original article was in MAIB April 15, 1993. I hope you can read the scans I have posted. Thanks to Bob Hicks and Susanne Altenburger for permission to post this on the web.

2010-08-20