Marsh Cat (Bolger)
Description
The Marsh Cat is a 15-foot cat-ketch daysailer designed by Phil Bolger (his design #503, published in "Boats with an Open Mind" and related collections). Introduced in the 1980s, it is a flat-bottomed, sharpie-style catboat with a distinctive two-masted unstayed lug rig (main + mizzen, no boom on the main), built for extreme simplicity, low cost, and versatility in shallow, protected waters—marshes, bays, lakes, rivers, or calm coastal areas. The hull is constructed from plywood using stitch-and-glue or taped-seam epoxy methods (no lofting required), with a wide flat bottom for stability, flared sides that increase wetted surface as it heels, and a daggerboard or leeboards for lateral resistance. It prioritizes rowing as primary propulsion, with sailing as secondary, and is praised for its dry ride in chop, shallow draft for beaching/exploration, and ease of construction—ideal for amateur builders seeking a practical, no-frills small craft.
Construction Details
| Designer | Bolger, Philip C. |
|---|---|
| Builder | Home Built |
| Length | 15.000 ft |
| LOA | 15.000 ft |
| Beam | 5.500 ft |
| Displacement | 250 lb |
| Max Draft | 4.500 ft |
| Min Draft | 0.500 ft |
| Year Built | 1985 |
The standard boat dimensions
| i | - |
|---|---|
| j | - |
| p | - |
| e | - |
| p2 | - |
| e2 | - |
| i2 | - |
| j2 | - |
| I | J | P | E | P2 | E2 | I2 | J2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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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