Re: [bolger] Re: Posted construction photos of original Whalewatcher

This is good news, that someone is building another Whalewatcher! Having owned (when it was already rotten) and destroyed the first one, then completed the second one and helped launch and try it out (with Phil and Susanne present for the trials—Phil’s last sail, I think, and a very happy day) I can testify that it is a very comfortable, functional design. I always had the greatest sense of well-being in that boat, working on it, sleeping on it, and sailing it. The design was always tempting to me, and I always thought it odd that so few were built. The size of it has been the problem, I suppose, and yet it is not at all heavy. I trailered it behind my V6 wagon, quite easily, and launch and retrieval are easy, as is setting up, with the mainmast in a tabernacle and counterweighted. Really, it’s a winning boat. I might post more pictures, showing the interior more—so nice to lounge about it, look out of, etc. It’s a good performer too, as you’d expect. Pat Connor is going to sail the only finished Whalewatcher,Utilis, in the Wood Regatta on the Chesapeake in May. Perhaps we’ll get some good comparative information about its performance from that race. I hope to be there too, sailing either a Goodboat or a Micro. ---Mason