Rest in Peace
Phil Bolger
1927-2009


I was never a student to Phil’s designs but always respected his education, writings and spirit.

Gloucester Times: Boat creator 'leaves on own terms'

Simplicity Wins Again

I’d been toying around with the Slider Cat by doing a little more modeling and some drawings when I realized why I liked the design in the first place. Simplicity. If you want something bigger you bring on all the bigger designs issues. Why not just choose some larger designs in the first place and save yourself some aggravation. Want an open hull design in the 30-foot range? Get the Wharram Tiki 31 plans out and build that. Need a pod on the deck for dry sleeping, cooking and lounging? Try the Woods Wizard (22 feet) or Sango (25 feet) designs. All of these are either demountable or in the case of the Woods boats can be folded up and trailered.

Each and every one of these designs has some component that just will not please every builder/sailor.

I don’t like the idea of sleeping in a coffin yet I want the openness only found on open deck catamarans. I would like to be able to transport the finished boat to any launch I desire without spending days assembling it. These are just a sampling of the dilemma every designer faces when trying to satisfy everyone with his or her design.

As for us? I don’t think we’ll give up on the Slider Cat idea.

At 1/12th scale the yellow hull is 16' and the blue hull is 20'.
The manikin is in scale and would be 5' 6"

Making her a 20 footer seems within reason and I have no doubt about using the stitch and glue method on the design. I was able to “peal” off the skin on the first half model and using those build a 1/12th scale using that method with no problems at all.


Demounting issues were easily overcome and I have a trailer idea that will work but we’ll talk more about that when the time comes.

The big issue now is what to do on deck. I have several layouts that will provide ample sitting/lounging room and one idea that would convert some of the space to a sleeping area although it provides no protection under sail. Note that at 20 feet there is room for a single bunk in the hulls but I refer you to the coffin referance above.

I need to set the sailing program for the design and stick to it. If your sailing offshore for extended amounts of time the open hulls would probably be a bad idea. If you’re just skipping beach to beach, they’re no problem. Is there a cover design that would second as some other purpose upon reaching the destination? What about a canvas solution along the lines of the Tiki 31 (see JOJO)?

Lets tackle the deck first. The wheels are turning.

What’s next?

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this blog. All my concentrations have been on The SB18 project.

With financial resources for everyone drying up in the past year or so we have been dragging our feet as to what will be the next build after the SB18 is completed this summer. For us there is less to go around so we are looking at everything associated with the build in relation to its cost. Space to build can lead to spending more. Naturally larger designs require more materials. Other things are more in line with after the build is complete. The larger the boat, the more upkeep there is. Slip space to keep a large cat can be very expensive.

I recently wrote a friend that I might have a problem. I am a plans collector. Maybe there should be a support group for us? There are others out there and I know a few of them personally.

We now have in our possession five full sets and numerous study sets of catamaran plans and we won’t talk about monohulls on this blog but there are a lot of those in our filing cabinet. All the catamaran plans are a result of down sizing. We started with the Wharram Tiki 38, downsized that to a Tiki 31, and then switched designers to Richard Woods. His Sango is a nice 25 footer that can be stored and transported on a trailer. We looked at Paul Fishers Cat 254, a 26-footer with some good qualities especially in the building style. Then I ran across Ray Aldridge’s Slider, a 16-foot beach cat with some unique ideas.

Ray’s not a professional naval architect and doesn’t claim to be. He is creative and was determined to build himself a small catamaran for beach cruising and camping along the coast of Florida. In his own words “I designed Slider to be the most luxurious 16 foot open boat beach cruiser possible. Much of the luxury derives from the fact that Slider is a catamaran, and consequently has a very stable and level ride. Even more luxurious is the adjustable seating within the hulls, where much of the crews’ bodies are protected from the elements. The helmsman steers facing forward in a comfortable molded seat, using a steering line that runs around the perimeter of the center deck and hulls. Once at anchor, luxury takes the form of a fairly spacious tent, which allows two people to bed down on the center deck, with one cockpit and its seats enclosed by the tent, and the other cockpit open for access to the outside world". (Read more about the Slider on Ray’s blog here)

I purchased the plans (why not I collect them) and quickly saw promise to a whole new area of what may be acceptable in our own catamaran. I think the design is a little overbuilt and would work wonderfully as a stitch and glue project. Ray’s plans call for more of a skin on frame build and it is an easy enough way to build it but does add a little weight. I also think the beam could be increased and the hulls made to be demountable still allowing it to be trailered without special permits.

To brush up on converting the plans to stitch and glue method I went back through Sam Devlin’s How to Build Any Boat the Stitch-and-Glue Way. I made up a half mold to get the panels and will now build a scaled up version as a test. I want to go to about 20 feet at a minimum, increase beam, work out demounting issues and maybe toy around with a deck pod. With the SB18 project on hold while epoxy cures I should have the time to do this.