This Bolger Folding Schooner was built and sailed by a local man who eventually got too old to handle it any more. He donated it to the Charlotte Harbor Community Sailing Center, a non-profit organization that supports youth sailing, disabled sailing, and small boat sailing in general in our area. Using it as a lawn decoration was considered and rejected and no one wanted to try to restore it, so it landed on this rack in my driveway several years ago. And there it sits.
If no one wants it, it will wind up in a landfill when it becomes too painful for me to watch it slowly deteriorate any longer.
Is it worth saving? If you want a Bolger Folding Schooner, maybe. I guess it would be less work than building a whole new one.
I'm posting this to share around and see if anyone wants to take on the project. It's not really mine to sell or give away but I'm certain the good people at the Sailing Center would like to see it have a good home and would appreciate any donation made to support their mission.
A view of the two ends of the boat. The varnish on the foredeck somehow survives but you can see some rot in the bottom of the aft section.
More rot is visible in this shot of the hinge area. The aft section seems more affected than the forward section, which is remarkably well preserved considering the circumstances.
The same hinge area, but with the camera pointed down to show the bottom of the forward hull section.
Turning the camera toward the bow a bit shows the end of the tiller, part of the daggerboard, and some more of the forward hull section.
There's some discoloration from rot underneath the hinge on the starboard side. Amazingly, the varnish on the rub rail is still more or less intact.
Another shot showing the bow section sole, side, and the rudder and board.
More of the hinge area showing some of the sailing hardware, handheld compass, and the rot in the bow section sole.
The steel straps used to pin the boat together when unfolded are both pretty rusty.
The tanbark sails and spars are in OK shape. They spent some years sitting on the rack under the boat and were moved under my shipping container for better protection from the elements in 2018.
Another shot of the sails and spars.
And one more. These parts are keepers to me even if the boat winds up in a landfill but I would much prefer to see someone use them on this boat.
UPDATE: I just ran across this picture from July of 2014, when the boat was put on the steel rack.
Bolger Folding Schooner SailingI think this picture was taken by me in about 2010 out on Charlotte Harbor. It's this very boat, though I did not know anything about it at the time and just took the pic because it looked neat and I wondered what it was.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.