Bolger Chebacco
Description
The Chebacco is a 19-foot-10-inch plywood cat-yawl sailboat designed by American naval architect Phil Bolger in 1989, crafted as a versatile "camp cruiser" for coastal gunkholing, day sailing, and overnight adventures. Named after a historical Gloucester fishing schooner, it combines Bolger's signature Instant Boat simplicity with a sharpie-inspired, flat-bottom hull and leeboards for shallow-draft exploration (10 inches up). Ideal for amateur builders, it uses stitch-and-glue construction for quick assembly (~300–500 hours) and affordability (~$5,000–$10,000). With a spacious cabin and balanced lug rig, it’s perfect for solo or couple’s cruising in bays, rivers, or lakes, offering stability and surprising speed (6–8 knots on reaches). Over 200 have been built globally, with an active community celebrating its “boxy but brilliant” design.
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Sails
| Sail Type | JIBSAIL |
|---|---|
| Luff | 12 ft - (3658 mm) |
| Foot | 5.25 ft - (1600 mm) |
| Leech | 12.42 ft - (3786 mm) |
| Length Perpendicular | * 5.2 ft - (1585 mm) |
| Area | * 31.2 ft² |
| Sail Type | GAFF MAIN |
|---|---|
| Luff | 8.5 ft - (2591 mm) |
| Foot | 13.67 ft - (4167 mm) |
| Leech | 22 ft - (6706 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 83.44 ° |
| Diag (clew/throat) | 15.25 ft - (4648 mm) |
| Head | 12.42 ft - (3786 mm) |
| Area | * 149.25 ft² |
| Sail Type | LEG-O-MUTTON |
|---|---|
| Luff | 10 ft - (3048 mm) |
| Foot | 5.5 ft - (1676 mm) |
| Leech | 10.83 ft - (3301 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 83.23 ° |
| Diag (clew/head) | 10.83 ft - (3301 mm) |
| Head (Inches) | 2 |
| Area | * 28.21 ft² |
Disclaimer. Boats are not all the same -- even when produced in the same factory of the same model. Sailrite does its best to publish accurate dimensions, but we often find it worthwhile to have our customers measure their boats carefully before we produce kits for them. You should take the same precautions, especially when the data is not from Sailrite. The information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Sailrite offers this content as a service to our community, but takes no responsibility for the reliability of the data provided.