Bolger Tortoise No.458
Description
Bolger Design #458, known as the Tortoise, is a minimalist, 5-foot-10-inch plywood pram dinghy designed by American naval architect Phil Bolger in the late 1970s as part of his "Instant Boats" series, developed with Harold "Dynamite" Payson. Featured in Payson's book Build the Instant Boats (1979), it’s a pint-sized, flat-bottomed rowboat with an optional leg-o'-mutton sailing rig, engineered for ultra-simple construction using a single sheet of 1/4-inch plywood for a hull under 40 pounds. Designed for solo use in tiny ponds, creeks, or calm harbors, Tortoise is car-toppable, beach-launchable, and ideal for kids or beginners learning to row or sail—offering surprising stability for its size but limited speed (2–4 knots rowing, 3–5 knots sailing). While not a performance boat, its rugged simplicity makes it a favorite first-build project, with dozens constructed globally, often in a weekend (~20–30 hours) for ~$200–$500.
Construction Details
| Designer | Bolger, Philip C. |
|---|---|
| Length | 8.000 ft |
| LOA | 24.000 ft |
| LWL | 19.670 ft |
| Beam | 8.580 ft |
| Max Draft | 4.080 ft |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | 37.73 ft |
|---|---|
| j | 12.47 ft |
| p | 14.25 ft |
| e | 9 ft |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37.73 ft | 12.47 ft | 14.25 ft | 9 ft | - | - | - | - |
Blueprints
Sails
| Sail Type | LEG-O-MUTTON |
|---|---|
| Luff | 14.25 ft - (4343 mm) |
| Foot | 9 ft - (2743 mm) |
| Leech | 13.62 ft - (4151 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 67.14 ° |
| Diag (clew/head) | 13.58 ft - (4139 mm) |
| Head (Inches) | 1.5 |
| Area | * 59.9 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.