The Boat
In 1994 a collection of seventy-five boat designs representing fifteen years of published concepts, by Phil Bolger was published under the title” Boats With an Open Mind”, by International Marine of Camden, Maine in America. This volume followed two earlier books that encouraged people to make their own boats, out of everyday materials that could be sourced at any reasonably sized hardware store, in a quick and easy-to-understand way.
The seventy-five designs are broken up into chapters such as “Very Small Boats”,” Rowing Boats” “ Motor Trailer Boats” and even “period pieces” like the curved plank cutting sizes to construct a Viking longship. Then in the final four chapters, Phil Bolger provided plans for what he calls bed and breakfast sailing boats and power boats, boats that are Vacation homes and then real cruisers.
Design # 559 The Super brick was first published in Bernard Wolfard’s Common Sense Designs probably in the 1980s, as a statement on how sailing boats all seemed to look so similar, Phil himself described that: “Designing one of these is an exercise in malicious humour… The joke’s edge is blunted if the thing doesn’t work reasonably well. A double berth, two singles, an enclosed washroom, a stand-up kitchen, and appropriate closets and other storage- plus an effective sailing rig with lateral plane and rudder, the ability to dismantle the rig without shore help, and an outboard motor placed to work clear of the sailing gear- can be fitted into a package less than eight feet by eight feet and twenty feet (long)…
It’s self-righting, unsinkable, strong, and stiff…
The article concludes “(It’s) Irresponsible. A gratuitous mockery of Right-Thinking Boatmen and other snobs. Obviously the boat for me.
I had purchased the plans from the designer a number of years ago and having constructed eight other of his designs from a tiny ‘pram dingy’ to a sea-going schooner, I had set my heart on a cabin of some sort with enough room to sit and play cards, or be my painting studio if the weather was inclement.
The internet after some fruitless searches finally pointed me in the direction of a Facebook page called and run by Friends of Phil Bolger. What a revelation some people had even built his designs out in the snow.
Requests for hints on how such enigmatic directions as “Flush hatch with drainage to the foot-well”, were to be constructed were not clear, so having joined the group I asked for some photographs of a completed Super brick. I was told one has never been built.
In one of the lockdowns, it seems now when I was only allowed out to care for the elderly it seemed a perfect chance to start the build.
First, a 1/12th scale model using polyester-impregnated thin cardboard to represent the ½ inch plywood sheets required in the final build this was ready by just after Easter 2021 even down to a 6-inch high sailor.
Deliveries were allowed so using Bolands I had delivered enough sheets for the sides and the lumber for the bulkhead stiffeners.
Think of a low rectangular box with a curved base this was assembled out of three sheets per side with the guts of a further sheet shared between the front and back. As much of the sides above the midline and bulkheads, A to D and the picture window frame for the front and the five-foot split transom were cut to size as per the plans, dosed with wood preserver, primed and doubled undercoated. All notches were cut in the cross beams and on the deck stringers and the central internal standing, the area was pre-fabricated. These pieces were loosely assembled and clamped together entirely filling the old building that I was using as my workshop, this gave a clear indication of the shape of things to come.
My friend next door helped carry out the 19ft 10 rather wobbly sides and we laid them out upside down on a specially levelled base of pallets in the yard. The boat had to be its own Boatshed. It was not the driest summer and there was from time to time some rain under the tarpaulins. With the bottom attached, it was time to turn it. A local farmer stood by to turn it with his front loader but it was not needed. He and his mate and me and my mate turned it by hand.
The assembly platform was then transformed into a level gig, to hold everything square to drop in the bulkheads to support the deck stringers and then the decks themselves, The only water that then got in was through the huge openings for the windows. These were covered with polythene, before the sheets of Perspex came. The suppliers only supply 90 degree cornered and parallel sided cuts so it was to the trusty Japanize hand saw to cut the off- square shapes.
The winter was not so hard and all the little finishing things could be then done in the dry inside the nearly finished boat.
Now it is ready for the hull tests in Arklow which must be done before the sailing club lift out day in a couple of weeks’ time. Brill.