Beautiful day for a sail today. It hit about 65 for the high.
Northerly winds were 8 to 12 knots. Flat water.

I'd taken a few pictures of a 36' Cat Ketch I'd been admiring
under sail all summer. Of course it was hard to miss. How
many boats are rigged like that.

In late Septembr, I'd taken pictures in the morning when they
were hoisting sails, and later, on my second time out sailing
with my Uncle, I changed course to take some shots of the
boat close hauled barreling down the channel like a race horse.

Hours later the boat happened to be sailing alongside us when
returning to the harbor. I told the owner I had some good
pictures of the boat and gave the owner my email address. I
was invited out the next day.

After weeks of weather cancelations and schedule conflict, I
got chance to sail on a Cat Ketch this afternoon. I'm told the
boat has a 6' fin keel, spade rudder, small wheel which worked
fine. The helm was a little cramped--plan to play footsie if more
than one person sat behind the wheel. The popular place for
feet was on the plateau mount for the binacle. The cockpit held five adults
with room for more.

What I don't like about the boat: The main is very heavy. It
was difficult to hoist and the exit block for the main halyard is
too low to sweat it properly--bow stringing added to the friction
so that didn't work either. The boat needs either a power winch
or a gun tackle on the main halyard. I'm told a fully charged 24V
Drill will raise the sail four times. Also, if any boat is a candidate
for a Dutchman system it is this boat. The lazy jacks did not do
a good job keeping the main under control.

By the way, the main had three reefs and the mizzen had two. I
didn't try reefing the boat.

The boat would benefit from mylar based Carbon sails--at least on
the mainsail.

The boat would balance, but not as well as a typical sloop, although
I'll admit I didn't have time to test it as much as I would have liked.

Sail shaping was somewhat limited. Another reason to make great
not simply good sails a priority.

What I liked about the boat: The two sails make it remarkably
maneuverable. Trimming sails was easy. It was the easiest boat
to tacking I've ever sailed. Simply head up. While the boat did
not point particularly great, it was fast, and a puff of wind simply
accerated the boat. The main would spill a little wind, while the
cross section of the mizzen matched the main, and hence didn't
seem to bend at all in a puff. I think it would have been better
to have taken the excess mast off the bottom of this mast, instead
of the top.

The deck was a breeze to walk around with plenty of space
for kayaks and other toys on the foredeck,and little reason to
go up there except for hoisting and lowering sails.

Below deck, there was no mast in the way. The main salon was
open and easy to move about. The single head was substantially
larger than you would typically find on a boat this size. The garbage
bin was accessible from both the galley and the port lazarette.

The owner installed an anchor windlass which was nice to have,
but was I'm told hell to install because the main mast has a huge
cross section and blocked access to this area.