The Yachting Year 2018

82 | THE YACHTING YEAR 2018

The Beetle Cat restoration programme started at Rhode

Island’s International Yacht Restoration School 18 years ago is

as unique as the boats themselves. In case you didn’t know,

the 12ft Beetle was first built in 1921 and is still built in wood to

this day, to the original moulds. They now number more than

4,000 and they are by far the most numerous wooden boat

model of all time. This must be some kind of production run

record, and the boats are, like so many in this short list,

emblematic of a nation.

The Beetle Cats can now add another extraordinary

chapter to their story, as no fewer than 120 of them have been

restored by students at the famous boatbuilding college.

Broken, derelict hulls in need of a second chance are donated

to the school and moved into the student workshop every

autumn; they emerge fully restored in spring and are splashed

on graduation day in the school’s annual Launch Day

ceremony. According to Clark Poston of IYRS, these small

boats are not necessarily simple to restore but they include

elements students are expected to master as they become

trained in plank on frame construction, including steam-

bending frames, backbone construction, planking, spar

making, and finish work. After restoration, the boats are sold

to raise funds for the school. The Beetle Cats are not only the

living embodiment of the eternal ‘life’ a wooden boat has:

skills learned on them have been used to restore yachts of all

hues and sizes around the world.

Not so long ago, millions would be arrested by the sight of two very di”erent

vessels sat side by side in Greenwich, London, yards from the Thames. They were

both testament to the bravery of men who sail around the world via the terrifying

Southern Ocean route, one a glorious Clipper ship from the wool and tea trade

crewed by salty men of yore; the other, a piece of 1960s modernism piloted by an

ageing, bespectacled daredevil. Now, you only partially see the Cutty Sark, hidden

as she is behind a curtain of glass. The other, Gipsy Moth IV, was taken out and

put back to sea in an extraordinary campaign by Yachting Monthly and UKSA to

send her around again, this time with a crew of youngsters. She was restored by a

huge volunteer team in just 150 days. These days, she’s still at sea, where she belongs.

BEETLE CATS AT IYRS

GIPSY MOTH IV

BENJAMIN MENDLOWITZ,

CB ARCHIVES

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