Boats with an Open Mind: Seventy-Five Unconventional Designs and Concepts

Here are 75 novel and wonderful boats--some strange, some beautiful, all of them paragons of Philip Bolger's form-follows-function design philosophy. A planing microtrawler; a glass-galleried, beachable birdwatching boat; a fully enclosed ocean-cruising rowboat; cruising sailboats that take the ground at low tide; power, sail, and rowing boats from 6 to 95 feet--these are boats as only Bolger's unfettered imagination does them. This is the first collection of Bolger's work in almost 15 years. It is long overdue.

"Bolger is an eloquent writer and his comments run the gamut from hilarious to profound."--The Ensign

"Bolger brings a kind of youthful feeling to yacht design--he would rather make precedent than follow it."--WoodenBoat

"Bolger has a way of seducing even the lay reader into thinking about and beginning to understand boat design."--Cruising World

"Boat lovers who are used to designers who conceive the same boat over and over, camouflaged with a face-lifting here and there, will be amazed at Phil Bolger's diversity."--Boatbuilder

Here are 75 novel and wonderful boats--some strange, some beautiful, all of them paragons of Philip Bolger's form-follows-function design philosophy.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 408) and index.

Philip C. Bolger was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1927. He became obsessed with boat design not long after. He now works in a sculpture garden of experimental boats of his imagining, still in Gloucester. His hobbies are history, prophecy, and fantasy. In the spring of 1994 he married and went into partnership with Susanne Altenburger, whose tastes and amusements are similar but not identical.

Note on Periodical Publication

Introduction

Part One Very Small Boats

1. Breakdown Punt

2. Brick

3. Payson Pirouge

4. Iceboat

5. Auray Punt

6. Dart Dinghy

7. Cartopper

8. Three-Meter Multihull

9. Supermouse

Part Two Rowing Boats

10. Sweet Pea

11. Spur II

12. Ceremonial Barge

13. Cruising Rowboat

Part Three Motor Trailer Boats

14. Motor Canoe

15. Clam Skiff

16. Fisherman's Launch

17. Hawkeye

18. Sneakeasy

19. Slicer

Part Four Sailing Trailer Boats

20. Pirate Racer

21. Bobcat

22. Spartina

23. Canard

24. Proa

25. His and Her Schooners

26. Japanese Beach Cruiser

Part Five For Moorings and Private Landings

27. Boy's Launch

28. Plywood 12 1/2

29. Keel Daysailer

30. Staysail Cat

31. Tarantula

32. Newfoundlander

33. Auckland Catamaran

34. Snow Leopard

Part Six Period Pieces

35. Dugout

36. Marina Cruiser

37. Alice

38. Keelboat

39. Longship

40. Schuyt Houseboat

41. Scow Schooner

42. Racing Schooner

43. Brigantine

Part Seven Bed and Breakfast, Sail

44. Micro

45. Chebacco Boats

(and more...)