Nine Lives Of A Yankee Catboat~ circa 1933.

[Craig Weis]

Sorry for the delay in completing this re-type. Computer is at neighbors house on the repair table. I just plugged in this unit from my deceased sister-in-law...it seams to work. 15-August-2009.

It's gonna take a few days for O'skippy to type this in...The Nature of Catboats from those who developed them.
This re-type is from a 1968 festooned collection of publications from Yankee Magazine in published 1933.

I found this book at a garage sail. There are photographs with this article but I'm not able to figure out how to post them using my Photobucket Model "A" site, But I may use the captions at the end of this re-type.

Let me preface my remarks by saying, "If it were not for a balsawood-on-end core sandwitch construction above the waterline, I'd love to own a Nonsuch 26 Ultra with that wonderfully tall carbonfiber mast stepped way forward supporting that wishbone boomed cat rig and one big sail is a mighty fine way to sail.  I 'luvs' cats.

John M. Leavens writes in 1933 for Yankee.

Early in the 1900's a Five-Masted Schooner Bound from South America to Boston was beating her way sou'west of Noman's in a northeaster heavy with snow squalls. Her crew spotted a small fishing boat pitching and rolling in the rough waters, her reefed sail slatting to and fro, and in seeming distress. It was the 22-foot Crosby catboat Goldenrod. Her owner, Captain Everett A. Poole of Menemsha, was taking in his lobster gear at the end of a successful season.

The schooner stood in close and her skipper sang out: "If you can hold her into the wind, I'll lower a boat and pick you off."

The reply was prompt and crisp: "well, thank you Captain. I think you better worry about keeping that thing off the beach yourself. We're alright. Your troubles are just beginning!"

A hardy breed of men fished New England waters in those days. The craft they sailed were equally hardy, for commercial fishing in New England in the days of sail gave rise to a wide variety of small sailing craft, distinctive, able, and sturdy, to serve those who made their living exploiting the rich fisheries. Of them all, the catboat is not only the best known but the one most likely still to be encountered under sail in coastal waters of New England.

Most people are acquainted with the more familiar fishing craft, such as the New England dory, the New Bedford whaler, and the Gloucester fishing smack. In between these extremes one could almost call the roll of New England states by names of native fishing craft designed for inshore fishing. Maine had the Eastport pinky and the famous Friendship Sloop, one of the few types that survives today. New Hampshire's contribution was the Hampton whaler. The Kingston lobster boat and the Noman's Land boat spoke for Massachusetts. The Block Island boat came from Rhode Island and Connecticut's craft was the New Haven oyster sharpy. Each was distinctive. Each was designed to meet local needs and conditions. Moreover, each was successful so long as local conditions remained substantially unchanged. Of them all, the Cape Cod catboat is the most widely distributed and best known.

It is commonly agreed that the catboat is uniquely American. Different localities along the Alantic seaboard vie for the honor of having originated it. New Jersey produced the Barnegat Bay  cat long before the 1870's. New York harbor rests it's claim on the Una boat of the 1850s. New Port, Rhode Island, developed a distinctive cat about the same time. But it remains for Cape cod and the Islands-Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket-to evolve the catboat in its finest form, the Cape Cod cat.

The well known rule that form follows function finds confirmation in the catboat's lines. Practical considerations dictated her draft, her dimensions of length and breadth and her graceful sheer-the profile line of her deck.

The harbors along the south shore of the Cape Cod are shoal. Shoal, too are the waters of Nantucket Sound where the swift-running currents and unpredictable wind often produce a wicked, choppy sea. The catboat designer's task was to build an able, seaworthy boat capable of operating under these conditions. The cat's shoal draft-three feet or less with the centerboard up, seven feet or so with the board down-enables it to go most anywhere.

Broad of beam for stability, high in the bow for protection against breaking seas, the catboat is safe and sea-kindly. Mertie Long of Bourne, Massachusetts built catboats with W. W. Phinny more then 60 years ago. [now 90 years] at Monument Beach. Awhile back, he explained the importance of the catboat's dimensions.

"By tradition," he said, "the catboat is a two-beam boat. This means that her length is twice the dimension of her beam. A 24-foot catboat has a beam of 12 feet. That's why she is so roomy. Look at the catboat's sheer. It's strong and graceful. It starts at a high point in the bow, curves down to a low point just aft of amidships and rises gently at the stern. A cat's beam and sheer combine to provide a large, convenient and stable platform for handling gear, or for hauling nets and lobster pots. You get more comfortable and useful working space in a catboat than in any other boat her size."

Forward of the cockpit the catboat has a small cabin house with sitting headroom and two or more transom bunks, a godsend to any crew forced to stay outside overnight. H. Manley Crosby, one of the famous Crosbys of Osterville whose name is synonymous with that of Cape Cod cat, records the story of his catboat Mblem, caught in a southeast storm near Cross Rip in the middle of Nantucket Sound before the days of power.

"The whole gale," Crosby relates, "made it impossible to carry sail and as night came on we anchored in mortal terror of the wildly tossing waters about us. Dawn, however, found Mblemstill riding safely to her anchor, but the breaking seas had washed the varnish off her sides of the cabin trunk and cockpit coaming."

The late Manuel Swartz Roberts, known to thousands of summer visitors as The Old Sculpin, built catboats for 45 years in Edgartown. He recalled one dimension, speaking of the cats he had built: "From the center of the stem to the center of the mast was 16 inches. That shows how far forward the mast can go in a cat." This is the most distinctive feature of a catboat's rig. The large, single sail, stretched between a high-peaked gaff and a long overhanging boom, assures a minimun of sailing handling. At the same time the catboat, on and off the wind, while no America's Cup boat, is nevertheless reasonably fast.  Because of her rig the catboat has a notorious weather helm. She tries to meet each puff of wind by turning towards it. To offset this tendency, a huge rudder is hung outboard of the stern. The first of these big rudders prompted some awed wag to remark, "It's big as a barn door," and the name stuck. Holding a cat on course in a stiff breeze is a real test of "sailmanship."

Working catboats came in a variety of sizes depending upon the use they would be put. The smallest, by and large, were the scalloping cats ranging in size 16 to 20 feet and designed to dredge bay scallops in sheltered waters. Next larger were the lobster cats generally 22 to 26 feet in length. Cats for swordfishing, trawling and hand-lining ran fish from traps and weirs to market, and the partying cats that congregated at Nantucket or Oak Bluffs and along Cape Cad offered summer visitors day excursions to favorite bluefish and flounder grounds.

Dan Larsen, an old-time catfisherman, explained how fish were kept fresh without ice on cats. Cygnet, he remarked, "had a compartment set off from the rest of the boat by watertight bulkheads. There were 70 holes in the bottom on each side of the keel for the sea water to circulate.
We carried as many as 300 live codfish in the well." A live fish well gave a fisherman flexibility in marketing his catch. From the fishing grounds southwest of Noman's, Dan could easily put in to Woods Hole, New Bedford or Newport. He rarely made the same port twice in a row, partly to confuse his competitors and partly to avoid flooding the market in any one port.

Informal contests between fishermen racing to market under sail led to more formal catboat races and the development of the racing catboat. In the 1890s and early 1900s Massachusetts and Narragansett Bays were centers of catbat racing. Interest and stakes ran high. Efforts to increase speed led to the construction of long bowsprits and more and bigger sails. The inevitable result was that the racing catboat became a dangerous and tricky boat. The qualities that made for stability were sacrificed for speed. In the end, other racing types came along and the racing cat disappeared from the scene but not without leaving behind its bad reputation to be attached indiscriminately and undeservedly to all catboats.

Changing cycles of fish, new methods of fishing, but above all, the introduction of the gasoline engine, brought about the decline of the cat as a working boat. The progress of change was slow, however, for the decade of the First World War was perhapsthe peak period for working catboats and many survived even into the twenties and thirties.

New cats became prohibitively expensive and few were built to replace those that, hardy as they were, succumbed to old age.

Some few cats were built as pleasure craft, and as time went by many of the old working cats were converted for cruising. The cat's great adaptability to cruse has encouraged a few designers and builders to help keep the catboat tradition alive in recent years. Fenwick C. Williams of Marblehead has probably designed more catboatsthan any man now living. Roy Blaney in Boothbay Harbor, the Marstons in Westbrook, Connecticut, and John Little of the Mile Creek Boatyard in Old Lyme have also added to the catboat fleet. Breck Marshall of South Dartmouth has developed fast fiberglass 18- and 22-foot cats of great promise. More recently, some admirers of old wooden catboats have undertaken to make new cats out of old. Tom Hale's yard in Vineyard Haven has turned out several of them. So complete has been the rebuilding that one critic observes,"All they have left of the old boat is the name and the shape."

Reviving interest in cruising cats led to informal races on Long Island Sound in the late 1950s. Sponsored by the Essex [Conn.] Yacht Club, word of these races spread and, in summer of 1962, some 20 cats rafted to get her in the Duck Island harbor of refuge after a hard race from the mouth of the Connecticut River. The assembled skippers concluded that the time had come to organize an informal body of owners, sailors and persons interested in catboats. Thus was born The Catboat Association. The name has prompted Joseph Chase Allen of the Vineyard Gazetteto observe: "Only a few organizations of any variety anywhere on earth are so exclusive, but so far as is known this is the only catboat association on earth."

Whether a cat has nine lives or not is anyone's guess. The fact is that old catboats go on forever and ever. The Catboat Association now numbers among it's ranks more than 200 members and more than 125 catboats, many of them 40, 50, and 60 years old [add 76 or so years to these numbers]. Cat have turned up from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But most of them happily sail New England waters, reminds both of the Yankee ingenuity of their builders and the fishmen whose courage and skill have added many lustrous pages to New England history.

By John M. leavens via skip.

Additional info on Cats.
CATBOAT HISTORY: Catboats started out as workboats. According to marine historian Howard I. Chapelle, beamy, single-sailed centerboarders with half-decked hulls and barn door rudders began to appear in America around 1840, when, for the first time, there was sufficient demand to make fishing from small boats profitable. Sailed mostly in Lower New York Harbor and on Cape Cod Bay, cats fished, freighted, ferried, and packeted for decades. Their simplicity, stability, and shallow draft made them versatile, and their efficiency and ease of handling made them popular. In the 1880s and ?90s, catboat racing flourished, especially around New York. In that Gilded Age, unlimited ?sandbaggers? with huge sail area and live ballast crew who moved from side to side with each tack to keep the boats upright. The Beetle, has that same expansive sail area for her short length and large barndoor rudder which helps her from heading up in a fresh breeze.

BEETLE CAT BOAT HISTORY: The Beetle Cat is one of the most successful low cost daysailers around. This boating tradition was started by the Beetle family back in 1920, continued by the Concordia Company and today is carried on by Beetle Inc.

The Beetle Cat is a fun boat and has been around for a long time. Some Beetle Cat owners belong to the 'New England Beetle Cat Boat Association', an association of serious Beetle Cat owners who sponsor regattas and other events involving the Beetle Cat. In order to join you need a Beetle Cat that meets all of the specifications set forth in their rules, which are based on the original specifications of the Beetle Cat produced in the 1920's and still being produced today.

The Beetle Cat was named after the Beetle family who originally designed and built the boat. They lived for generations at Clark?s Point, New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Beetles were widely known for their well designed and constructed Beetle whaleboats. These big double-ended boats were the craft from which harpooners and their crews pursued the great whales for their oil. They were built with mass production techniques developed by the Beetles that allowed them to build the boats quickly while maintaining high standards of workmanship.

In 1920 the John Beetle designed a small gaff cat rigged sailboat for his children, this was the first Beetle Cat. Its design was based on the twenty to thirty foot catboats used for shallow water fishing along Cape Cod. Outsiders, impressed with the Beetle Cat's performance in New England coastal waters and rivers, were quick to express interest. With this interest in the Beetle Cat and the demise of the whaling industry, the Beetles shifted production to the Beetle Cat. Using some of their manufacturing techniques they had used in building their whaleboats, they were able to make the Beetle Cat fairly inexpensive. This allowed the average working person to own one.

During World War II, all production of the Beetle Cat ended. After the war Ruth?s brother Carl, produced more Beetle Cats, but became more interested in plastics for boat building. Carl sold the rights to the Beetle Cats to the Concordia Company in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Concordia received more orders than they anticipated, and turned to New Bedford bodybuilder Palmer Scott for help. Leo Telesmanick was put in charge of building the Beetles. In 1960, Palmer retired and his entire Beetle crew including Leo was transferred to Concordia. Concordia set up a separate Beetle Cat operation. Leo made a number of changes in methods to improve productivity and insure uniformity of the hulls as well as changing from galvanized to bronze fastenings. Many of the patterns and the basic jig that the boat is built on are still used today.

In 1993 The Beetle Cat division was sold to Charlie York, and he now operates it as Beetle, Inc. Given this history Beetle Cat's probably hold the record for being the one design in the longest continuous production. Loyalty is also very high with many boats having been in the same family for as much as three or four generations.

One more:
CATBOAT HISTORY: Catboats started out as workboats. According to marine historian Howard I. Chapelle, beamy, single-sailed centerboarders with half-decked hulls and barn door rudders began to appear in America around 1840, when, for the first time, there was sufficient demand to make fishing from small boats profitable. Sailed mostly in Lower New York Harbor and on Cape Cod Bay, cats fished, freighted, ferried, and packeted for decades. Their simplicity, stability, and shallow draft made them versatile, and their efficiency and ease of handling made them popular. In the 1880s and ?90s, catboat racing flourished, especially around Cape Cod and New York. In that Gilded Age, unlimited ?sandbaggers? with huge sail area and live ballast crew who moved from side to side with each tack to keep the boats upright. The Crosby Cat has that same expansive sail area for her short length and large barndoor rudder which helps her from heading up in a fresh breeze.                                                                                   
BRIEF HISTORY: BRIEF HISTORY: The Crosby Yacht Yard was a Osterville mainstay long before the Wianno Seniors came about. The current business has been in operation since 1850, but boatbuilding goes back more generations than that. Jesse and Daniel Crosby learned the trade in the late 1700s from their father who had a business in Centerville, according to Wooden Boat Magazine. The Crosby Catboat was introduced in1798. It was a hit first as a fishing vessel, then as a fine sailing experience. The family name and reputation spread. At one time there were five different boat shops with varying Crosby connections. Oyster Harbors Marine was once known as Chester A. Crosby & Sons.  Except for Chester Crosby-Oyster Harbors Marine, the other four later came together under what is now known as Crosby Yacht Yard. It was the largest boat yard in Osterville and among the biggest business in town.

skip again

[Bob23]

Very good, Skip:
   I love the catboats, even the Marshalls I see at the boat shows. Not that they are any less of a catboat then the oldies. Actually, they are quite well made. But I've never sailed on one except a Menger Cat, which had hardly any freeboard and was quite wet. I didn't like it.
   If I were to defect from Compacville, I'd love to have a Marshall. But the thing that puzzles me is why all of them are so expensive. Any clues except that they can be?
Bob23
   

[Les]

The Marshall Sanderling is a heavy little boat at 2,200 pounds of which appx 500 pounds is ballast leaving 1,700 pounds of old fashioned hand layup glass as hull weight. LWL is 17'-6" with an 8'-6" beam coupled with a whopping 253 sf sail means this fat girl can move along.

For comparison, the 19/3 is 2,000 pounds less 800 in ballast leaving 1,200 pounds hull weight.

The Sun Cat is 1,500 pounds less 380 ballast/centerboard leaving 1,120 pounds hull weight.

Is the price high? Go look at the build quality and the longevity of the Sanderling with over 800 built since 1962 up to now. Geoff Marshall is a great guy to deal with just like Gerry Hutchins at Com-Pac.

The Menger 19 catboat is even heavier at 2,900 pounds.

Resale typically varies, check out catboats.org for an idea.

[Craig Weis]

Les take a look~see at the weight spread out over the square foot of the hull in the water. It's not so bad.
It's all about spreading out the weight. Displacing water. Good post.
skip.

[HenryC]

My first, and to this day, favorite, boat was a standing  lug-rigged catboat, the San Francisco Pelican; the world's biggest and most seaworthy twelve foot boat.  Although a true cat, with the mast set way forward, it had an optional reaching jib rigged to a bowsprit which could be used to tame the ferocious weather helm she developed, particularly when she was down by the stern. (Just the opposite of what you'd expect.).  I had to replace the tiller with an axe handle!

My love letter to the Pelican was published in Good Old Boat, you can read it here...

http://www.platypusboats.com/f/GOB_MJ06_Pelican.pdf

HC

[Craig Weis]

Gee it's a cat rigged sailing pram. Nothing wrong with that.
skip.