Bolger Martha Jane
Description
The "Martha Jane" is a 23'6" (7.16 m) plywood sharpie yawl—specifically a cat-rigged sharpie with a small mizzen sail—designed by Bolger in the 1980s. Featured prominently in his book Boats with an Open Mind (International Marine, 1994), this open camp cruiser emphasizes Bolger's core tenets: radical simplicity, low cost, and surprising performance for backyard builders. It's an evolution from earlier designs like the Black Skimmer, blending a boxy "Bolger aesthetic" (high freeboard, flat panels) with seaworthy traits for coastal or bay cruising. The name "Martha Jane" honors a friend or client, typical of Bolger's personal touches.
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
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| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
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| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Blueprints
Sails
| Sail Type | LEG-O-MUTTON |
|---|---|
| Luff | 13.5 ft - (4115 mm) |
| Foot | 7 ft - (2134 mm) |
| Leech | 14.56 ft - (4438 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 84.33 ° |
| Diag (clew/head) | 14.58 ft - (4444 mm) |
| Head (Inches) | 2 |
| Area | * 48.23 ft² |
| Sail Type | LUGSAIL |
|---|---|
| Luff | 11.33 ft - (3453 mm) |
| Foot | 16 ft - (4877 mm) |
| Leech | 20.083 ft - (6121 mm) |
| Tack Angle | * 83.33 ° |
| Diag (clew/throat) | 18.5 ft - (5639 mm) |
| Head | 12 ft - (3658 mm) |
| Area | * 199.08 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.