Vintage 1980 Suncat

[Joseph]

I found this very well kept vintage 1980 SunCat in Falmouth ME, being auctioned in eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1980-Custom-Sun-Cat-new-sails-new-Yanmar-deisel-gelcoat_W0QQitemZ280412451765QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20091020?IMSfp=TL0910202010004r23422
   
It looks like a Suncat alright, but being from 1980, would it be a Hutchins and a Com-Pac? With wooden spars, round ports, Yanmar diesel, a very significant bowsprit (wow!) and sloop rigged, it looks more like vintage Clark Mills. However it has a steel keel which, if original, would argue strongly for it being a Hutchins.

Enjoy,

J.

[Bob23]

Looks like a nicely customized 16, ayuh?
Bob23

[Craig Weis]

1980 Com Pac Sun Cat Custom Suncat
1980 Custom Sun Cat new sails new Yanmar deisel [diesel?] gelcoat.

Well...do ya think this was the original 'DNA' of the Compaq Yacht CAT BOAT family?

I wonder if it had a S.S. centerboard well would it be bolted down with a gazillion bolts washers and nuts?
A steel keel, hummmmm? Good for rocks in thin water.

Well it's still floating. Why didn't CPY stick with that rudder? Needs a lot of arm power I'll bet. Big barn door.

It's a nice boat.
skip.

[Joseph]

Well, the Suncat article in Small Craft Advisor (2001, #12) says that Clark Mills build some 50 Suncats in the 60s and 70s (Marconi rigs, bilge boards, no keel and no cabin) and that the molds were eventually retooled to a cabin model with keel "but that only 10 were produced". Stan Grayson in his book "Cape Cod Catboats" indicates that Mills sold the design in 1979 and the article in SMC further states that the molds "had lain fallow" for over 20 years before the Hutchins Co. acquired them. It also states that in 2001 "it seems they've just started to build them". Hence, I conclude that the Hutchins must have only acquired the molds in the late 90s and that this 1980 SunCat has good chances of being one of the very last ones coming out of the Clark Mills yard. It could also have been made by whoever acquired the molds directly from Clark Mills but in either case, it does not appear to be a Hutchins' or a Com-Pac.

J.

[Craig Weis]

Boy that IS interesting...Good thing Hutch went with the Sun Cat.
skip.