"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
Why do they call "cat boats" cat boats?

http://www.jsjohnston.org/~win_or_lose.html

Joe


So, behold the catboat. Note that it is both a hull and a rig. Note that the
hull is wide and the big, gaff-rigged sail is set on a strong mast with a
single forestay well forward near the stem. Note how the sail is controlled
with a topping lift, lazy jacks, separate throat and peak halyards, reef
points.

So the catboat is basic, plain, unadorned except for necessities. The
catboat is beamy, generous in girth, usually half as wide as she is long.
The catboat is powerful with that big, single sail. The catboat is shallow
draft, usually with a centerboard. And the catboat is deceptively simple.
The experienced sailor knows that if he fails to reef when the wind gets
strong, the cat may turn around and stare him in the eye. He also knows that
jibing in heavy air may pull the rig out of the boat.

The gaff main is not meant to be picturesque. It's to lower the center of
effort, give more drive off the wind and allow more control through the peak
halyard and topping lift.



Yet it is a rig and a hull form that take easily to young learning sailors.
We can see this from the Beetle Cats, which have been built for 75 years,
and more recently by Harold Turner's Turnabout trainers beginning perhaps 45
years ago.

The catboat is a native American art form. She was developed, built and
sailed with great skill by ordinary men who needed her for honest work. Her
origins go back at least 160 years, and perhaps more.

She was one of the most versatile workboats ever devised. In the age of sail
she was used extensively for all kinds of fishing activities--lobstering,
swordfishing, seining, handling and scalloping. She was used in packeting
and carry-away work. From southern New England to the Jersey shore, cats
took out day visitors for bluefishing and other pleasures.

The classic catboat has a plumb stem, high bow, and big barndoor rudder.
Those cats 17 feet or more usually have a cuddy cabin with two bunks and the
rudiments for overnight sailing. The cat is rarely longer than 22 to 25
feet. She was never intended for blue water work. Some of the bigger cats
did go 30 or more miles offshore in the fisheries. But the cat mostly was an
alongshore workboat.

The catboat had also been used since early times for pleasure sailing and
for racing. However, some cats built for racing a hundred years ago
developed an unsavory reputation and cast a shadow over some other catboats.
These racing cats had been given enormous rigs, with booms going way aft of
the transom. They set jibs on a long bowsprit and some even had what we
might call bloopers, shooters or whatever today.

http://www.catboats.org/gallery/crocker.htm

Now can you guess?
--
jlrogers±³©