Design
Tortoise
Designed by Phil Bolger
A 6 ft 5 in by 3 ft 2 in plywood punt by Phil Bolger, one of the Instant Boats he designed and Harold 'Dynamite' Payson built and tested. Plans are still sold by H.H. Payson and Company of Spruce Head, Maine, in their rowing and sailing category. It is about as small as a usable boat gets.
The Instant Boat idea is that lofting and a building jig are designed out: the panel shapes are given, so the builder cuts them from sheet plywood and assembles the hull directly. Payson describes the type as within reach of first-time builders. No build time is published; budget 20 to 50 hours. Measured medians from build logs appear below.
What building a Tortoise actually takes
Medians from the build logs kept on this site, not the designer’s estimate. Nobody has logged this boat here yet, so they are empty until the first builder does.
Those medians firm up as more people log this boat.
Builds of this boat
Nobody has logged a Tortoise here yet.
If you are building one, yours becomes the reference: the page the next person building this boat finds when they search for it. One photo and one line is a valid first entry.
Start the first log of this boatBoats like this one
Same type, closest in length.