Talk:Phil Bolger

Phil is gone
From a statement by his companion and partner, Susanne Altenburger:


 * "In the early morning hours of Sunday May 24th 2009 Philip Cunningham Bolger of 66 Atlantic Street, Gloucester, Massachusetts took his own life, out of his own free will, shooting himself in the head with his Colt 45. I awoke later to his absence and found his body on our property out of public sight."


 * "Phil's personal life and body of work were an expression of firmly defined and ever broadened independence from deeply-entrenched conventions, intangible superstitions, and other known limitations on the free use of mind and thus sound judgment. He lived that way and decided to leave us that way."


 * "He stated repeatedly that he has had 'a good ride', he marveled at many small and larger instance of good luck, was immensely pleased to have on major occasions in his life taken the right decisions - including asking me to join him in life and work - and expressed no fear of dying, only his concern for survivors. And without you all there none of this would have been more than some obsessive compulsive need to cover paper with ink. We both understood, along now with a growing number in his family and friends, that there would never be a 'good time' to lose him, only that things would most likely become worse for him and us."


 * "Phil Bolger's body of work will remain with Phil Bolger & Friends, Inc. under my guidance. Over fifteen years of shared life and work, Phil had progressively made the explicit point for me to gradually assume the conceptual leadership of the venture with more and more of the work developed by me and vetted by Phil's deep and broad personal and historic perspective. With his death is lost his immense personal knowledge, unceasing inquisitiveness, constructive contrarianism, quick and warm humor, casual if not mischievous wit, and so often joyful outlook on to the next project."

My thoughts: "Old designers never die." To borrow from our cousin fishermen, "fishermen never die, they (or we) just smell that way." Bolger will always be with us in a uniquely personal way not only through his writing, but more so through his designs. Among Bolger's many funny statements, one stands out for me: he said that he came into his own as a designer when he finally purged all of Chapelle's ideas from his mind. Howard I. Chapelle is, of course, Bolger's only real competition as the iconic American boat expert.

--John Bessa (talk) 20:45, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Announcement: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bolger/message/60397 Obituaries: Boston Globe -- http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2009/05/31/phil_bolger_noted_designer_of_boats_from_gloucester/ NYT -- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/us/01bolger.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries He will be very missed. htom (talk) 18:48, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

table of designs
Below is a 'sandbox' for a table of the Bolger designs. BruceHallman (talk) 22:13, 30 April 2008 (UTC)


 * updated BruceHallman (talk) 20:13, 13 May 2008 (UTC)


 * this is excellent, the only suggestion I have is to add a dates column now that Bolger's information is becoming historical. Also, there may be a case for fair use of his drawings, at least his vessels' basic outlines.  If so, then another column might be added for icon-sized hull drawings, and possibly another for sail rigs.--John Bessa (talk) 22:15, 26 May 2009 (UTC)


 * It might also be nice to have a column with plans source (PB&F, Payson's web site, etc.) and maybe a column with links to photos of boats built to the designs. Of course, utility of the table diminishes as the columns fall off the screen.Howsomever (talk) 12:05, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Trademark symbol in quote
Even if the trademark symbol is in the original quote, we don't need to retain it here.&mdash; Chowbok  ☠  21:10, 25 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I think the reason the trademark symbol should be included is that it was deliberately used by the author to convey a sense of irony and/or satire, and that message is lost with it removed. SaltyBoatr (talk) 14:30, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Remove tags for additional sources
In general, everything to support the info on this page is in the bibliography. dadadata (talk) 12:22, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

schooner in 1950 Rudder magazine
Rudder Magazine cites four designs from 1950, including a 30 foot schooner with no name. — Preceding unsigned comment added by GordyBIng (talk • contribs) 12:19, 5 October 2012 (UTC)