Beach cruiser & Catboat

This Skerry is a beautiful boat. It's a classic rowing type with a sailing rig built in a type of lapstrake construction the builder, Chesapeake Light Craft, calls "LapStitch." The promo material calls it a "beach cruiser." I guess I'm old. No, I'm definitely getting old. I just can't imagine sailing along with camping gear and pulling my boat up on the beach and setting up camp for the night. There was a time when I could.

There is not an ugly line on this boat. The sheer is beautiful and accented by the lines of the chines. The chines add interest and eye candy to an already appealing boat. The pea pod plan form shape is very traditional and makes this boat row sweetly. I admit to being a sucker for a nice pulling boat. That's what you call them when you are serious about rowing: "pulling boats." It has a good sound. In some ways it's a refined dorylike shape with flared topsides, but more plan form asymmetry. The flared topsides provide stability when the boat is heeled and gives you sufficient buoyancy to go out for an afternoon's sail and return home with a load of herring. "Ahhh, the smell of the sea."

The little sprit rig will move the Skerry along nicely but don't harden up against a Laser. A Sea Scouter would be more fair game. I see myself in the Skerry, Piper perched in the bow, Three Nuns smoldering in one of my vintage Dunhills, silently sailing down the shoreline on a reach trolling for cutthroat trout. Bliss would be mine.

I love small catboats. They are packed with personality and a wee bit quirky. I used to live in a houseboat next to a fellow who rented out Beetle cats. I gave him a hand from time to time and he let me have unlimited use of his little catboats. This Classic Cat designed by Merv Hammatt is bigger than the Beetle cat and appears to be a very comfortable daysailer.

The hull is the typical Cape Cod catboat model. The waterlines forward are fine and beam has been carried broad to the stern. There is a firm turn to the bilge and about 14 degrees of deadrise. The sheer is springy and essential to that wooden shoe-type profile that sets the catboat apart. The centerboard is a plate type. Lead ballast and foam flotation are both glassed in place. Draft with the board up is 10 inches. Those big, barn door type rudders can be a handful when you bear off onto a broad reach in a breeze. But heck, that's just part of the quirky fun of sailing a catboat. You learn quickly about the effect mainsail pressure has on helm balance.

If you have never sailed a good boat with a gaff rig you might be in for a surprise. If the peak angle of the gaff is high enough you can point just fine. Off the wind the gaff rig exposes a lot of sail area. Obviously, with a rig like this a good vang would be very helpful, but you just don't see them on catboats and that may be a function of the low gooseneck. In a breeze you might find it's more prudent to tack the boat downwind rather than risk the excitement of a flying jibe with that big boom.

I think it's important for anyone interested in the history of sailing yachts to put some time in on a catboat like this Classic. I can guarantee that you will be pleased with the overall performance. No question you will always look very salty. And that's important.