More Photos Below!Gallery
I’m charmed by the innovative, practical, high-performance, thrifty boat ideas of Phil Bolger and Jim Michalak. And to me these ideas morph and come to life in the book, “The Simplistic Sailboat: A Family Cruise in a $600 Boat,” by Dan Hookham.
Dan was inspired by Bolger & The Gang then took their ideas and ran with em to create a boat that was just right for him and his family. He didn’t want to use plans, wanted the project to be organic and living. I don’t think they’d mind. He clearly had plenty of skills already, as he and his family were living aboard another boat he had built. The new project was a little family-trip beach cruiser. He put it together in a couple weeks, with $600 and scavenged materials from area dumpsters. His little book is the story of this process, his worldview, and the resulting summer cruise their family went on in their new little boat. It gives lots of info on the islands in the Puget Sound region that they traveled among. I also really liked how he included the cultural setting for what he was doing and why—that’s the worldview part, I suppose. He gives plenty of props to the working fishermen and their make-do values. Now, quarters might be viewed by some as being a bit cramped. 2 parents and 3 kids on a, what, 23-foot beachable boat?
Oh, the book is also about family and marriage. It’s a wonderfully integrated tale.
Ordering link: www.amazon.com/gp/product/0965595447/jeffpottersoutyoA
Here’s a link to the technical concepts bible, by Phil Bolger, with a totally new view of boats if you haven’t heard of him before. Plenty of culture in there, too:
www.amazon.com/Boats-Open-Mind-Seventy-Five-Unconventional/dp/0070063761/jeffpottersoutyoA
Here’s a how-to book featuring Phil’s designs converted into backyard potential:
www.amazon.com/Instant-Boatbuilding-Dynamite-Payson-Harold/dp/0071472649
Another easy-build book by another tiny boat guru, Jim Michalak:
www.amazon.com/Boatbuilding-Beginners-Beyond-Everything-Motorboat/dp/1891369296
Here’s a website offering several Bolger’s Black Skimmers, a handy thinwater boat, for chartering in the Keys; $750/wk:
www.hallman.org/bolger/BlackSkimmer
Here’s an amazing central resource for all things “cheap boat”:
www.friend.ly.net/users/dadadata/boats.html
Mike O’Brien’s “Boat Design Quarterly”:
Phil Bolger plans—and more—available online:
Gotta always mention the huge cheap-boat resource of Duckworks:
Black Skimmer — early semi-trailerable Bolger — from a website offering these handy tinwater boats for chartering in the Keys; $750/wk; see link above
Ah, Martha Jane. Trailerable, beachable Bolger family boat. Triumphant daughter of Black Skimmer
The Bible. Phil’s latest book. Full of it. Lots of culture, too; stories. But “Simplistic” really brings the Bolger worldview to life in a nutshell.
23 feet looks darn small on the beach. That’s good. Easy to handle. Weight is everything for a one-man (plus family) low-budget trailer boat.
Top view of family at sea in cheap digs. (from the book)
Beach life. (from the book)
Cover of a fine look into life with a cheap, small family boat.
