We are dedicated to preserving the art of traditional Plank-On-Frame wood boat construction using the highest quality of materials and craftsmanship and we take great pride in being featured in prominent boating media outlets. Here are just some of the media outlets we’ve been featured in: Sail Magazine Classic Boat Magazine Yachting Magazine – American…

By Dennis Caprio, Photography by Billy Black A civil engineer from Alabama rescues the Beetle Cat from the brink of extinction. I sailed a Beetle Cat for the first time in 1999 on the Mystic River in Mystic, Connecticut. It was one of the Seaport Museum’s livery fleet and in fine condition. Sharon Brown, at…

By Chris Museler With 15-20 coloured sails on the line every weekend, the diminutive cedar-planked gaffer now has its next generation of junior crews carrying on the torch. It was started in the late 1950s by Sloat Hodgson of the Chappaquoit Yacht Club in West Falmouth. The boats were used for junior training and Hodgson…

As we all know from experience, Beetle Cats sail best in light and moderate winds. On the surface of it, this fact seems somewhat ironic since the Beetle is a design adaptation of the 16-30 foot Cape Cod Catboat, a popular commercial fishing craft of the 1800s and early 1900s designed primarily for heavy weather…

In the hey-day of the big working cats, scandalizing was a standard catboat sailing skill that has been almost totally forgotten today. This is unfortunate because scandalizing is a very handy, simple-to learn technique, and I’ll bet there isn’t a Beetle cat sailor alive who couldn’t have avoided some hair-raising heavy weather experience if he…