We are building a Phil Bolger designed 25' Black Skimmer for a client in the San Francisco Bay area. Phil passed away in May of 2009. He is missed. Phil Bolger was famous for designing both very beautiful and very unusual boats. This boat is probably in the unusual category, but really only because of the pernicious effects of rating rules. If we were only interested in sailing fast and not in fair sailboat racing, there would be a lot more boats like this one.
His partner and widow, Susanne Altenburger, will continue their business and continue to sell their plans.
Here is the address:
Phil Bolger & Friends, Inc.
PO Box 1209
Gloucester, MA 01930 USA
Fax 508-282-1349
The Black Skimmer's hull design is based on the sharpie hulls designed by Commodore Munroe in the late 1800's. It's a flat bottom hull with lots of rocker. The considerable sail area is set on two unstayed masts, making it a cat ketch. The mainsail is an easily reefed rig called a Solent lug. It's similar to a sliding gunter, except that the sail is only attached to the yard, not the mast.
Here's a photo of the completed boat on her first day outside, getting her sail covers fitted:
She's now complete and was launched on September 18, 2007. Use the left navigation bar to visit the Construction, Exteriors, Interiors, and Sailing pages for more photos.
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