Beetle Cat
Encyclopedia
A Beetle Cat is a 12 inch catboat
first built in 1920 in New Bedford, Massachusetts
by members of the Beetle family. Over 4,000 have been built. Beetle, Inc., now in Wareham, Massachusetts
, is the sole builder of Beetle Cat boats.
Famous owners include or have included Senator John Kerry
, Jacqueline Onassis, who had one shipped to Greece in 1969 for John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy
to learn sailing in, Steven Spielberg
and Calvin Klein
."
A new Beetle 14 catboat, with bench seating, accommodates four adults and has 80% more cockpit interior space. Designed by Bill Sauerbrey in 2006/2007, it underwent a sea trial in late April 2007.
along Cape Cod. With interest in the Beetle Cat and the demise of the whaling industry, the family shifted production to the Beetle Cat boat.
During World War II, all production of the Beetle Cat was suspended. After the war, Beetle sold the rights to the Concordia Company in South Dartmouth, MA, which set up a separate Beetle Cat division and in 1960 moved the entire Beetle Cat crew to Smith Neck Road in South Dartmouth. Among the crew was master builder Leo Telesemanick. In 1993, the Beetle Cat division was sold to Charlie York and became Beetle Inc., maintaining the shop at the same location. In October 2003, William L. Womack became the new owner of Beetle Inc. with Charlie York remaining the Master Builder. Womack re-located the operation to Wareham MA.
Beetle Cat Inc. also builds other custom wooden sail and power yachts. In 2005–06, Womack accepted a commission to build a scaled-up 28 feet (8.5 m) version of a Beetle Cat. Designated a 28-foot C.C. Hanley Catboat, the yacht Kathleen was featured in the November/December 2006 issue of WoodenBoat magazine.
The craft is a wooden class boat used for racing purposes, and a beach cruiser and family sailer (the craft can be launched from a sand beach as well as from a dock or boathouse lift). Although Beetle Inc. is the sole builder of new Beetle Cats, other specialty boatyards such as at he International Yacht Restoration School
refurbish Beetle Cats with the objective of training and preserving traditional boat building methods.
Beetle Cats in Massachusetts are often compared to the Herreshoff/Haven 12.5s, designed in 1914 by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff. Both vessels share old-school style, boat handling, and aesthetic qualities and both attract similar classic wood-boat enthusiasts. Both craft have been included in coffee table picture books about classic wooden boats. A travel writer in the New York Times noted in a 2002 article that "over the years, the Beetle Cat has acquired an unlikely cachet, as Jacqueline Onassis had one shipped to Greece in 1969 for John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy
to learn sailing in, and current Beetle Cat owners include Steven Spielberg
, Calvin Klein
" and the glass artist Michael Glancy
.
The Beetle 14 boat carries 180 sq ft (17 m²). of sail, proportionate to the Beetle Cat's rig; however, two sets of reef points are standard, whereas the Beetle Cat has only one. A topping lift is standard, as well as more purchase on the peak halyard and mainsheet. These changes, on top of a more depth of hull with less fullness forward, were intended to make the vessel easy to handle and fast. Two have been built to date.
, with the Class Association's sanctioned major regattas hosted by fleets in Barnstable, Chatham, West Falmouth, Orleans, New Bedford and Hyannis, as well as Edgewood, RI. The regatta schedule augments the local racing schedules of individual yacht clubs. There is also a fleet on Georgica Pond
, in the Hamptons, where half the fleet consists of Barnstable Cat Boats. Seymour Ingraham introduced the first Beetle Cat, the Hispaniola, to Georgica Pond in the summer of 1966. Center Harbor Yacht Club in Brooklin, Maine has a fleet of Beetle Cats.
The best known fleet of Beetle Cats are on Nantucket. In 1925 the Nantucket Yacht Club chose the design for its fleet; with the different colored sails, it became known as the “Rainbow Fleet”. The Rainbow Fleet has entered popular culture due to the ephemera available that features the fleet—posters, gifts, toys, embroidered throws, belt buckles, half-hull models and even candies and food items.
There are also Beetle Cats to sail at the Mystic Seaport Museum
and The International Yacht Restoration School.
A well-known Beetle Cat was purchased by Jacqueline Onassis in 1969 for her children and put up for auction after her death.
Catboat
A catboat , or a cat-rigged sailboat, is a sailing vessel characterized by a single mast carried well forward ....
first built in 1920 in New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...
by members of the Beetle family. Over 4,000 have been built. Beetle, Inc., now in Wareham, Massachusetts
Wareham, Massachusetts
Wareham is a town located in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 20,335, with an estimated 2008 population of 21,221....
, is the sole builder of Beetle Cat boats.
Famous owners include or have included Senator John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
, Jacqueline Onassis, who had one shipped to Greece in 1969 for John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is an American author and attorney. She is a member of the influential Kennedy family and the only surviving child of U.S. President John F...
to learn sailing in, Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
and Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
."
A new Beetle 14 catboat, with bench seating, accommodates four adults and has 80% more cockpit interior space. Designed by Bill Sauerbrey in 2006/2007, it underwent a sea trial in late April 2007.
History
The Beetle Cat is named after its designer, John Beetle, who drew the lines for the pleasure boat in 1920. The 12 feet (3.7 m), gaff-rigged boat's design was based on the 20 to 30 ft (6.1 to 9.1 m) catboats used for shallow water fishingShallow water fishing
Shallow Water Fishing is one type of the many types of fishing there is. Shallow can mean many different things; shallow lakes, shallow rivers, and most common to fishermen is the shallow ponds with high concentrations of moss...
along Cape Cod. With interest in the Beetle Cat and the demise of the whaling industry, the family shifted production to the Beetle Cat boat.
During World War II, all production of the Beetle Cat was suspended. After the war, Beetle sold the rights to the Concordia Company in South Dartmouth, MA, which set up a separate Beetle Cat division and in 1960 moved the entire Beetle Cat crew to Smith Neck Road in South Dartmouth. Among the crew was master builder Leo Telesemanick. In 1993, the Beetle Cat division was sold to Charlie York and became Beetle Inc., maintaining the shop at the same location. In October 2003, William L. Womack became the new owner of Beetle Inc. with Charlie York remaining the Master Builder. Womack re-located the operation to Wareham MA.
Beetle Cat Inc. also builds other custom wooden sail and power yachts. In 2005–06, Womack accepted a commission to build a scaled-up 28 feet (8.5 m) version of a Beetle Cat. Designated a 28-foot C.C. Hanley Catboat, the yacht Kathleen was featured in the November/December 2006 issue of WoodenBoat magazine.
The craft is a wooden class boat used for racing purposes, and a beach cruiser and family sailer (the craft can be launched from a sand beach as well as from a dock or boathouse lift). Although Beetle Inc. is the sole builder of new Beetle Cats, other specialty boatyards such as at he International Yacht Restoration School
International Yacht Restoration School
The International Yacht Restoration School is a private school on Thames Street in Newport, Rhode Island, that teaches boat and yacht restoration. The school also has a campus in Bristol, Rhode Island, that offers marine technology courses...
refurbish Beetle Cats with the objective of training and preserving traditional boat building methods.
Construction
The small cedar-hull and fir-spar boat has a sail of approximately 100 square feet (9 m²) and an 8 inches (20.3 cm) draft (board up). A new one costs nearly $17,000 (less sail), while older ones come on the market from time to time. Beetles are built as planks of Atlantic white cedar over white oak frames. The seams are caulked with cotton. Though hull colors, and to a greater extent, sail colors vary, the classic colors are a white hull, green below the waterline, a natural cedar cockpit (or on older boats gray), and "Beetle Buff," a sort of burnt orange, for the canvas-covered deck. The spars are varnished.Beetle Cats in Massachusetts are often compared to the Herreshoff/Haven 12.5s, designed in 1914 by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff. Both vessels share old-school style, boat handling, and aesthetic qualities and both attract similar classic wood-boat enthusiasts. Both craft have been included in coffee table picture books about classic wooden boats. A travel writer in the New York Times noted in a 2002 article that "over the years, the Beetle Cat has acquired an unlikely cachet, as Jacqueline Onassis had one shipped to Greece in 1969 for John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is an American author and attorney. She is a member of the influential Kennedy family and the only surviving child of U.S. President John F...
to learn sailing in, and current Beetle Cat owners include Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
" and the glass artist Michael Glancy
Michael Glancy
Michael M. Glancy was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1950, and began working with glass in 1970. He received a BFA from the University of Denver in 1973 and a second BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1977...
.
Beetle 14
Beetle, Inc. introduced a Bill Sauerbrey designed "Beetle 14" in 2007, responding to inquiries for a Beetle Cat with seats. The Beetle 14 feet (4.3 m) catboat is cedar-planked over white oak frames, with a canvas deck and oak coamings similar in style to the Beetle Cat. Two feet longer in length, the cockpit seats four adults. The interior on the first boat had a "natural" cockpit at the request of the owner, with painted or varnished seats. The developer made the custom stem head fitting, mast band and gooseneck patterns for the casting of the custom bronze hardware. The spars were built of solid Douglas fir and finished off with bronze hardware and blocks.The Beetle 14 boat carries 180 sq ft (17 m²). of sail, proportionate to the Beetle Cat's rig; however, two sets of reef points are standard, whereas the Beetle Cat has only one. A topping lift is standard, as well as more purchase on the peak halyard and mainsheet. These changes, on top of a more depth of hull with less fullness forward, were intended to make the vessel easy to handle and fast. Two have been built to date.
Fleet locations
Beetle Cats are concentrated in MassachusettsMassachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, with the Class Association's sanctioned major regattas hosted by fleets in Barnstable, Chatham, West Falmouth, Orleans, New Bedford and Hyannis, as well as Edgewood, RI. The regatta schedule augments the local racing schedules of individual yacht clubs. There is also a fleet on Georgica Pond
Georgica Pond
Georgica Pond is a coastal lagoon on the west border of East Hampton Village and Wainscott, and was the site of a Summer White House of Bill Clinton in 1998 and 1999....
, in the Hamptons, where half the fleet consists of Barnstable Cat Boats. Seymour Ingraham introduced the first Beetle Cat, the Hispaniola, to Georgica Pond in the summer of 1966. Center Harbor Yacht Club in Brooklin, Maine has a fleet of Beetle Cats.
The best known fleet of Beetle Cats are on Nantucket. In 1925 the Nantucket Yacht Club chose the design for its fleet; with the different colored sails, it became known as the “Rainbow Fleet”. The Rainbow Fleet has entered popular culture due to the ephemera available that features the fleet—posters, gifts, toys, embroidered throws, belt buckles, half-hull models and even candies and food items.
There are also Beetle Cats to sail at the Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport
Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea, in Mystic, Connecticut, is notable both for its collection of sailing ships and boats, and for the re-creation of crafts and fabric of an entire 19th century seafaring village...
and The International Yacht Restoration School.
A well-known Beetle Cat was purchased by Jacqueline Onassis in 1969 for her children and put up for auction after her death.
Reference Books
- Georgica Pond, by Priscilla Ratazzi (2000), ISBN 0-935-11247-2
- Wood, Water & Light: Classic Wooden Boats, by Benjamin Mendlowitz and Joel White (1988), ISBN 0-393-03327-9
- The Book of Wooden Boats vol. II, by Benjamin Mendlowitz and Joel White (1992), ISBN 0-393-03417-8