Preview: The Beetle Cat Fleet, A Half Century at Center Harbor Yacht Club

18 Responses So Far to “The Beetle Cat Fleet, A Half Century at Center Harbor Yacht Club”

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  daniel snyder says:

  Miss my WILLOW. Used to sail over t’other side- in Herrick Bay.

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  Peter Hales says:

  I would love to build one ., so how do i get some plans for the beetle cat ?
  Peter

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  Charles Howland says:

  Many thanks for that wonderful video. Brought back memories of two ten-year-olds perched on the weather rail, trying to hold her down in a nice Buzzards Bay Sou’wester. Too bad we never had sense enough to reef! Charlie Howland

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  Nicholas Parson says:

  I never expected my MALLARD to become a movie star. If only she were her typical green last summer! Some manufacturer issues forced a switch to a much darker shade, but she’ll be back to her old self this coming season. What a wonderful tribute to the fleet. Thank you!

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  David Tew says:

  There are more tips about rigging and sailing a Beetle written by Roger Taylor (may he rest in peace) in the original Small Boat Journal, Volume 1, No. 6, January 1980. In it he describes the particular advantages for the Beetle of a topping lift when raising sail to keep the boat from wandering on a mooring or at a dock, when reefing or scandalizing. He suggests a sculling oarlock at the transom and a long oar (or curved yuloh). My own experience with bailing them when deeply filled was with an old galvanized ‘pull pump’. They were primed at the top where they funneled out and lifted the captured water from the bilge with a wood broomstick with leathered cup and flap valve at the bottom of the pipe. They would pump a big volume of water so fast that it was fun!

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    Maynard Bray says:

    Roger’s ideas are always worthwhile and we’ll add this SBJ reference to Nav Further. Also, we’ll include this OCH Guide Post about tin pumps: https://www.offcenterharbor.com/2015/07/20/delivering-leaker-tin-pump-era-tale-1927-motorboat-magazine/ I assume that this is the pump you speak of. Too bad they’re not made anymore.

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      David Tew says:

      Yes, thanks for the link. That’s the pump and I agree that its too bad they aren’t available anymore, although they do come up at country auctions from time to time. They threw enough water far enough that with luck and good aim you could sluice gull droppings overboard off a Beetle’s foredeck.

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  John Amaral says:

  Loved my Beetle, Gatinha (Kitten in Portuguese), Hull # 525. Believe she was built by Leo in 1955 at Smith’s Neck. Sailed with my wife and young kids out of Swansea, MA and Prudence Island, Portsmouth, RI. She was traditionally painted: white topsides, green bottom, salmon pink deck, verdigris green bronze letters across her transom. Both my kids learned to sail her before they were seven. Wonderful memories of ghosting north along Prudence’s eastern shore from mooring off our cottage to the Prudence Inn for an after supper ice cream cone and ghosting home again. Those were golden years. As kids grew, moved on to a 1981 Marshall 22, called, Catspaw. Immediately added cedar ceiling in cabin to recapture that lovely Beetle Cat cedar smell. Kids are gone, and now own a 1988 Stur-Dee Cat, would have loved another Beetle, but at 79, my old knees require a seat vs. sprawling on the cockpit floor.

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    David Tew says:

    Howard Boats mentioned above as builders of the Fisher Cat started with a prototype of a slightly larger cat boat inspired by the Beetle. It was 14′ with a bit higher topsides and (finally!) bench seats. It was beautifully executed in wood but they decided the final version adopted for production needed to be longer still, thus the Fisher Cat.

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      Maynard Bray says:

      Concordia produced what was called a “Senior” version of the standard Beetle Cat which had seats and a little more freeboard. I wonder if that was the basis for the Howard version?

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  Laurence Clement says:

  I learned to sail in catboats up in the North Channel of Lake Huron, not the Beetle Cat, but a similar rig and boat. The same amazing, wonderful experience of a forgiving rig with lots of sail, shallow draft with the center board and a simple rudder-tiller rig (get the rudder up and out before hitting rocks!). I remember sailing/racing in Nantucket Harbor with an experienced member of the yacht club who knew the bottom so well we would raise and drop the center board while approaching a tack to take maximum advantage of the wind during a race… what great memories. Thank you!

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  George Weinbrenner says:

  Great video. Thanks

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  Robert Muir says:

  I have a Beetle Swan which does not seem as fast as the wooden boats. With the marconi sail it does not have the fullness of canvas my old wooden Beetle, Lone Tern had. Being on the Texas coast the glass boat has some advantages.

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  Roger Elmes says:

  Excellent video – informative thoughtful folksy

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  Chris Methot says:

  I learned on a beetle cat in 1963, Somerset MA. Great boat.

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  David Tew says:

  Like so many others my first ‘real’ boat was a Beetle. We sailed out of the Wianno Yacht Club in Osterville on Cape Cod Massachusetts. The shallow bays, narrow creeks and Nantucket Sound were warm and varied places to learn, sail, practice and race. My younger brother sailed with me, often getting soaked when he droop-hiked over the foredeck’s rail with his hand and ankle snagging one of the halyards. The boat was named PEQUOD and we had her in the 1960s. I wish I remembered the hull number and could find out what happened to her.

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    Tom Sieniewicz says:

    David, I think Pequod still sails! My family bought her in 1971, when I was 11, we sailed her in Barnstable. I have kept her and still sail her – and kept her up but in Maine on Mount Desert Island. She’s a 1957 Concordia beetle. My brother and I sailed her, my sons have learned to sail on her. I now have a Crosby cat boat, which often when I return from sailing it is to immediately go boating on Pequod. She will be launched this year again. Is safe and sound. Reach out and I can share much more. I think you would find her completely unchanged. Tom Sieniewicz, Cambridge, MA

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      David Tew says:

      Thanks Tom! If it’s she that’s wonderful to hear. What’s your Crosby catboat?