"Thom Stewart" wrote in message
...
Neal,

A little bit of Cat Boat history. They were designed as shallow draft
vessels. As working boats for Lobstermen, Oystermen, Clammers, or for
any independent Watermen. They were shallow draft, beamy boats so that
they could work shallow sand bars and when they had something to sell,
they could sail them right up on the beach and peddle their product
right from their Boat. That was why the Big Barn door Rudders and Center
Board Keels and sand bags. When you had a hull load of clams you could
bump the sand overboard and stack the cargo on the windward (High) side
and sail pretty flat, When there was no cargo you could fill the bags
with sand (Cheap) and sail flat.

About being "In Irons" they were good at that. As a work boat you could
sail up to a Lobster Buoy, grab the pot line and the well behaved "Cat
Boat' would go nose up to the Wind and just wait for you. When you were
ready to go you just had to hold the Boom over into the wind and she'd
drop off into and easy reach to the next Pot.

Joe! I asked my Skipper ONCE how come they were called "Cat Boats" and
he replied;" How the hell do I know. probably because the rigging on the
Gaff looked like a " Cat-O-Nine tail, don't ask me dumb questions!" I
never asked again but to this day I don't know why the name.



It's not Nelly.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com