countries and it is said to be one of the fastest-growing classes in Europe. 

 With 520 boats altogether, including 42 in the United States, the class seems 

 to have moved fast. 



The principal areas of sailing activity in the United States are on San 

 Francisco Bay, the vicinity of Seattle, Florida, and New York. In Europe 

 there are a number on the Mediterranean (France and Italy), in Norway, 

 Sweden, Denmark, etc. The boat is said to be dry and unsinkable, due to 

 its watertight compartments. The United States class Secretary is A. D. Hurd 

 (582 Silverado Drive, Lafayette, Calif.). Price of a new boat (cost and 

 freight, as offered by Getz for the U. S. East Coast) is $1364 with Dacron 

 sails. In San Francisco it costs $214 more. 



VITAL statistics: L.O.A. 2o'3''; waterline 13'8"; beam s'lo''; draft 

 (keel) 3'; sail area 121 sq. ft. (spinnaker used); approximate weight 1430 

 lbs.: trailable. 



BEETLE CAT 



Though some of the boats carry a beetle insignia on their sail, this class 

 is named not for a bug but for a man, or rather a family: the Beetle 

 family, for many generations resident on Clark's Point, New Bedford, Mas- 

 sachusetts. Those who belong to the author's generation and have many 

 pleasant memories of wooden boats and gaff rigs can prepare for an attack 

 of nostalgia when they watch a fleet of Beetle Cats racing on Buzzards or 

 Narragansett bays. For the Beetles still swarm in those waters, over two 

 thousand strong, from Cohasset, Massachusetts, to Babylon, Long Island. 



It all began in 1921, when the Beetle family designed and built the 

 "Original Beetle Cats." Until 1946 the Beetles continued to manufacture 

 these cats, but during that year the company became engaged in the manu- 

 facture of fiber-glass boats with Marconi rigs. It then transferred all rights 

 concerning the "Original Beetle Cats" to the Concordia Company, Inc., of 

 South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, builders of the famous Concordia yawls. 

 Thus the tradition of gaff-rigged, wooden catboats has been carried on to 

 this day, with no essential changes in boat or rig. 



The New England Beetle Cat Boat Association, organized in 1937, and at 

 last account with a membership of over thirty clubs, has had a great deal to 

 do with the continued success of the class, as has the Concordia Company. 

 But the boat itself is primarily responsible. It takes a good small boat to 

 behave well in the choppy waters and smoky sou'westers of Buzzards Bay 

 and Nantucket Sound. The Beetle Cats (not to be confused with a cata- 

 maran) are seaworthy for their size, safe, and comfortable. Extremely pop- 



28 THE SAILBOAT CLASSES OF NORTH AMERICA 



