FLYCATCHER
Below l-r:
modern cam
cleats for ease of
solo sailing;
plenty of storage
forwardbeautiful spars are built by Noble Masts, on Wesley
Massam’s mast production barge moored in Bristol
docks. The mast is hollow Douglas fir and the boom and
gaff are solid Sitka spruce. Then the rig is rounded off
with a cream-coloured sail from Mike McNamara. It is
finely finished and performs superbly.DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
Stock sums up the philosophy behind his modern
catboat, saying it has “lots of design features which
would not normally be found on a boat of this type”.
He says: “The purpose was not just practical
considerations – such as the broad capping on the
centreboard case to have a place to grip when moving
about in a very beamy boat – but also to achieve a
curvaceous and interesting look; think curvilinear! Car
coachbuilders in the 1930s were artists and influenced by
the period – ie Art Deco. Today most sailboats are bland
AWBs (Average White Blobs) - designed solely for
performance and/or utility and to a target cost - and
certainly not for exquisite aesthetics.
“The use of modern materials such as Corecell,
Awlgrip, Awlwood, Coppercoat and Flexiteek sit well
alongside Sitka, Douglas, teak, laminated mahogany and
cedar. The use of a cream coloured sail and beige or buff
coloured polyester and Dyneema running rigging from
Kingfisher also adds to the retro appeal.”
You can study the build process by visiting
facebook.com/catboatpoole
The final finish to the woodwork rounds off this retro
look – and once again Stock sourced a modern material
to do the job. The SEMCO system (available from
semco-online.com) gives a deep lustre and excellent
protection to all the teak that is not under the boom
cover when the boat is resting on its mooring.
Flycatcher – which Stock hopes will be the first of a
possible new Flycat catboat class – was launched in
August 2017. The owner, designer and builder were all
delighted by her dramatic looks, stability, ease of sailing
and surprisingly good performance. So I felt honoured to
be invited for a spin in early autumn before Flycatcher
was put back on her trailer to be stored over winter in
Stock’s garage.
Bosham greeted us with a stiff breeze. As we motored
out to the moorings, Flycatcher bobbed happily on her
buoy under her well-tailored cover. Even whenCowes ‘she represented the extreme of simplicity and
manoeuverability as compared with local craft of her size
and larger...her speed and her handiness in smooth water
and moderate breezes made her popular and (in Britain)
gave the name to the type...“una boat”.’
However catboats never really caught on in the UK
and secondhand examples are as rare as hen’s teeth. So
on a trip to New England – one of many homes to
catboats in the USA – Stock cadged a ride on a cousin’s
Beetle Cat based at Nantucket Island. And loved it. Visits
to yards and museums on Cape Cod revealed various
catboat designs and the ever-nimble Stock brain took
notes, dimensions and photos with the aim of designing
and building his own catboat back in Old England. He
had found his new project.
Stock told me he had previously met Justin Adams
(who designed dinghies and dayboats) and Chris Somner
(who built them in Poole) and both became crucial to his
catboat project. Stock knew exactly what he wanted.
Ease of sailing, towing and storing in his garage (long
since evacuated by classic cars) suggested a hull of 14ft
9in (4.5m) LOA and 6ft 11in (2.1m) beam – a typical
catboat ratio of around 2:1.
In October 2016 Justin the CAD-man started
producing a succession of drawings and renders (to the
Stock specification) and these went to Chris the builder
to be turned into a catboat.MODERN APPROACH
Stock wanted a modern catboat – not a copy of an old
design. So it was decided to build the hull over a former,
using planks of modern, light and easily faired and
sheathed Corecell, cut out from sheets. The same
material was used to construct the decking and buoyancy
tanks (with teak benches on top). This structure had to
be strong enough to support the mast while the running
rigging would be arranged to run under the Flexiteek
‘picnic’ deck to an array of the latest Harken cam cleats.
The foils are also bang up to date, having
hydrodynamic NACA sections. The weighted
centreboard (polyester coated shaped marine ply with
GRP protected edges) and lifting rudder (mahogany and
yellow cedar with GRP protected edges) are more
efficient and performance-enhancing than the ‘barn
doors’ found on some elderly catboats. They also
improve handling and reduce weather helm. The