Bolger Zephyr
Description
The Zephyr is a Phil Bolger design, specifically a 20'9" (approximately 21-foot) sailing sharpie or double-ender featured as one of the five "traditional instant boats" in Harold "Dynamite" Payson's 1984 book The New Instant Boats (International Marine). It was part of Bolger's early collaboration with Payson on ultra-simple plywood boats built using the chine-log method (gluing, nailing/screwing plywood panels with fiberglass reinforcement where needed), requiring no lofting, complex jigs, or exotic materials—just common lumber yard stock. This places Zephyr in the same family as other early Instant Boats like the 12' Teal (rowing/sailing skiff), 15'6" Surf (similar sharpie hull), and the 31' Folding Schooner—all sharing single-chine hulls (flat bottom + two side panels) shaped primarily by bevels on the chines for quick, amateur-friendly assembly. These were intended for protected waters (lakes, bays, calm rivers), with no self-bailing cockpit or inherent capsize recovery (builders often add foam flotation for safety).
Construction Details
| Designer | Bolger, Philip C. |
|---|---|
| Builder | Home Built |
| Length | 20.750 ft |
| LOA | 20.750 ft |
| Beam | 3.667 ft |
| Max Draft | 3.000 ft |
| Min Draft | 0.500 ft |
| Year Built | 1984 |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Sails
Bolger Zephyr - LATEEN
| Luff | 15.67 ft - (4776 mm) |
|---|---|
| Foot | 12 ft - (3658 mm) |
| Leech | 14.167 ft - (4318 mm) |
| Tack Ang | * 59.86 ° |
| Area | * 81.31 ft² |
| Edit in Calculator |
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.
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