"Birdwatcher" style boats

[pindimar]

Hi AJ

Yes, and that picture does, as you say, show the rgonomic challenges for the more mature amongst us!'

Below, though, is a picture of the same boat's exterior:




Greg

[PAR]

Maybe I'm the only one (wouldn't be the first time), but I see shapes like that and I just think about windage, lots of it and the smell of cooking acrylic.

[pindimar]

Maybe I'm the only one (wouldn't be the first time), but I see shapes like that and I just think about windage, lots of it and the smell of cooking acrylic.

Yes, windage is the first thing that people think about with these designs generally and there are mixed reports about that. Birdwatcher I cannot see being a problem in that regard due to the relatively low profile, narrow beam and long waterline length. Scram Pram maybe is another issue! Will wait and see, although the IMBs around seem to say that windward sailing isn't as bad as you'd think.

The smell of cooking acrylic - was that your experience in Florida with Bob Archibald's Birdwatcher? Which rather gets back to the issue of heat build-up I guess. Maybe that's a tropic topic!

Greg

[pindimar]

Furled Sails is a sailing related podcast service in the US and they have recently uploaded an interview with Phil Bolger, the boat designer from Gloucester, Massachusetts who is now around 81 years old and certainly one of the most prolific and creative designers there is!

Great to hear him speaking about various boats, mostly sail or row but a few power boats as well. He particularly talks about Birdwatcher and states that he still thinks that it's the best thing he has ever done, so that must some kind of an endorsement, I would think!

The sound quality isn't so great but good enough to make listening easy.

Here is the link to Part I this week Part II will be uploaded next week, I believe.

http://www.furledsails.com/

GregF

[pindimar]

This is such a great photo of a Birdwatcher style boat at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. In this case, a Jim Michalak designed Jewelbox Junior - this one called Sage.



The Jewelbox Junior was a 15' design based on one of Jim's earlier efforts called Jewelbox, which is a 19' flat bottomed Birdwatcher. Quite a few more Juniors have been built than the 19' version, though.

GregF