Photos by Norman Fortier
 
LENGTH: 12 FT. 4 IN. BEAM: 6 FT. 0 IN. SAIL AREA: 100 SQ. FT. WEIGHT: 450 LBS.
 
On any week end of the beautiful New England summer, a visitor to that area's historic seacoast will invariably be impressed with fleets of wide-beamed sailing craft that, whether following a race course or out for a day's carefree sailing, are always riding the waters with graceful ease. They are the Original Beetle Cat Boats. You see them everywhere on the north and south shores of Cape Cod, on Buzzard's Bay, on Narragansett Bay, at Nan tucket Island (where they are called Rainbows), and more recently on the Great South Bay, Long Island.

Over 1,800 of these boats have been built to date, and nearly every year sees the formation of new fleets. More and more people are discovering the Original Beetle Cat Boat as an ideal "family boat," for it meets the need of the sailing enthusiast, young or old, who wants a boat for fishing, picknicking, and even some short-range cruising. And, with the development of racing associations, racing these boats has become the favorite week-end sport of hundreds of youthful skippers and many oldsters who find this a perfect way to oast their cares aside.

The Original Beetle Cat Boat was designed in 1920, and in 1921 it began to appear here and there on the New England coast. As the virtues of this new small craft came to be appreciated, it made a place for itself as a racing class.

The design of the Original Beetle Cat Boat was taken from the old 20 to 30-ft. catboats that were being used for fishing in shallow waters along Cape Cod. Earning a living in this area required a boat capable of withstanding rough waters and able to cross over the sand bars that were such a menace, particularly at low tide. A catboat could overcome this difficulty because it had a rudder that was slightly above the keel line of the boat and a centerboard which could be pulled up. The Original Beetle Cat Boat is 12 ft. 4 in. long and is a design adaptation of the great Cape Cod Cats.

The Beetle Cat Boat was named after the Beetle family who designed and originally constructed it. This family lived for generations at Clark's Point, New Bedford, Mass., and was widely known for the "Beetle Whaleboat." This was the boat, unexcelled in design and workmanship, that was lowered from a whaling ship when a whale had been spotted. From the boat, harpoons were thrown when attempting a catch. (This phase of whaling is memorialized at New Bedford, Mass., in a statue with the inscription, "A dead whale or a stove boat.") Naturally, they had to be good, rugged boats.

The Beetle family could build these whaleboats very quickly and at the same time keep their sound standards of construction. They developed prefabrication in boatbuilding and employed mass-production methods. Where it is usual to build the ribs first in other types of boats, they "wrapped" the planks around the skeleton first, and put the frames in afterward. This made it possible to build a complete whale-boat in one day.

In 1920, the Beetles designed and produced a small sailboat for one of the younger members of the family. This was the first Beetle Cat Boat. Outsiders, impressed with the performance of this boat in New England coastal waters and rivers, were quick to express interest in it. The result was that the Beetles turned to making catboats, adopting some of the manufacturing techniques they had used in building whaleboats, thereby making the Beetle Cat comparatively inexpensive— well within reach of the average man. (Even with the tremendously increased costs of production today, the present manufacturers price the complete boat at only $625 F. O. B. South Dartmouth, Mass.)

Since the first Beetle Cat was built over 30 years ago, the younger members of the Beetle family have carried on the boatyard. World War II interrupted all construction. When the war ended, Carl Beetle produced some of these boats at New Bedford, Mass., but then, becoming interested in the development of plastics for boat construction, he transferred the right, title, and interest in the Original Beetle Cat Boats to the Concordia Company, South Dartmouth, Mass.

The Concordia Company is headed by Waldo Howland, whose family, for generations, has been following the sea. His great grandfather was in the whaling business and his own father's first job was putting bungs in whaleboats in the Beetle family boatyard. The latter, Llewellyn Howland, wrote a very readable book, Sou' West and By West of Cape Cod, in which he gives a most interesting account of the building of one of these 30-foot whaleboats. He also tells of putting 40 bungs a day in a boat, for which he was paid a penny apiece. Little did he realize that his son, Waldo, would one day turn shipbuilder and carry on the tradition of the Original Beetle Cat Boats.

Thus the Beetle Cat Boat is rich in a history that stems from whaling days. But what are the features that have given it such wide acceptance? The wide beam, the rudder that doesn't extend below the bottom of the keel, and the centerboard that lifts up, as previously mentioned, are features that lend this boat to shallow waters. It is a boat that can be beached. The six-foot beam makes it unusually stable and gives it a large carrying capacity. While racing standards call for one person as skipper and one person as crew, these Original Beetle Cat Boats have been known to carry as many as six 150-pound persons. Made entirely of wood (oak frame, cedar planking), with no ballast, the boat is nonsinkable. The large decked area forward means spray falls on the deck rather than inside the boat. The rig is similar to that used on the old, large-size Cape Cod catboat, with the mast well forward and using a single gaff-headed sail. With this type of rig, if you release the tiller, the boat will head into the wind and practically stop. This feature makes it an ideal boat for youngsters. There is a great deal to be said for a gaff rig on a catboat. You can shorten sail and keep the center of the sail effort where you want it without fear of the boat taking charge and falling off.

Profile drawing shows Beetle Cat is a typical catboat with mast well forward and a gaff rig.

In a blow, the crew sits well aft and hikes to weather to keep the little cat on an even keel.

Because of its safety features, the Beetle Cat is a perfect boat for both juniors and seniors.

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