catboats and a yacht

lizzienewell

Well-Known Member
I'm back after being gone a year or so. I got busy with work and with writing my third science fiction novel. What do you know more boats are showing up in my writing.
First off is the royal yacht, the Shewolf. She's about 60 meters long with grand salon, meeting rooms and the queen's suite. To top it off she's got artificial intelligence, a smart boat. I've made drawings of her but no model yet. I haven't found a good boat to base her on. Most private luxuary yachts are built for ostentation rather than as a sort of floating embassy. And the British royal yacht is a bit too large and not high tech enough.

My other boat is fairly low tech. The Arctic High is day sailer about 16 feet long. I haven't figured out her exact length. I think she may be a catboat. She's got a centerboard and is either gaff or sprit rigged. I haven't figured out the advantages of one over the other. I'm not sure if she has a cuddy cabin or not. I've checked with a forum for catboats enthusiasts for ideas. In the story she belongs to a 60 yr old man who teaches the equivalent of jr high civics but secretly he's a spy and ex-pirate. His 18 year old granddaughter takes the boat sailing, cabsizes it, and then rights it by herself with great effort. So I've got to choose a boat which could be righted after capsize. I'm going to give her a high-tech self inflating mast float to keep her from turning turtle and the hatches will be closed when she goes over.
I've started making models. I found a wooden model kit(Cheasepeake Bay Flattie) at a garage sale and have started building it. But then I got disappointed with some of the design and discovered I disliked painting. I started thinking about converting it into paper. I've started that process, but have lost interest once I figured out how to make the centerboard go up and down. I tried doing some reasearch and concluded it isn't a model of any real boat.The preportions don't look right to me. The centerboard seems too far foreward and the beam seems too narrow. I think it's a catboat which was modified heavily to make it easier and cheaper for beginners to build. I think the narrow beam is to reduce the amount of balsa wood needed.
Has anyone had experience with this model? It's put out by Midwest Products.
 
lizzie, no I don't have any experience with this model, just so glad to see you back here. How have you been, was wondering what ever happend to you. Have you published any of your novels? I'm a si-fi guy myself. Would love to read what you have wrote. Hope someone here can help you with your request. My very best to you.
 

lizzienewell

Well-Known Member
Cardstalker,
Aww thanks. It's nice that you've missed me.
Manuscript #2 is done and I'm sending out query letters to agents. I shifted to a romance/science-fiction emphasis--here's hoping I can get both the guys and the gals reading. Got the boats for the guys and the true love for the gals. Oh and some explosions too. Got to have things going boom. You guys showed that to me when you explained why you like modeling tanks and guns.
I'm working on manuscript #3 It's a romance between a princess in disguise and a young mariner in love with a boat, a menage a tois of sorts. Little does he know that the boat is connected to an implant in the princess's brain. Oh boy! lots of fun. I'm trying to put in more explosions.
 

lizzienewell

Well-Known Member
Photos of cheasepeake bay flattie

Here is a photo of the partly built wooden version and of two preliminary white-build version in paper. The centerboard goes up with a pull of the string.
 

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lizzie, both look great. I have to admit, I don't know much about boats. My father did, wish he were still here, he would be able to share some info. He pasted away last year in May. From what I have found, both this boat and catboats share the same basic design, forward mast and flat bottom. The only real differance I can see is the catboats were a smaller class 12' to 20' and the other are about twice the size. Mostly used for Trawling for shell fish in the 1800's. Please keep posting your progress, your doing a great job. My best to you.
 

lizzienewell

Well-Known Member
What I've found is that catboats have the mast all the way forward. They are also broad of beam. They often have a deep cooming around the cockpit, a big "barn door" rudder, and are gaff rigged. I haven't figured out which of these characteristics are essentual to classifying a boat as a catboat.
 
Z

Zathros

Hi Lizzie, Love the catboat(?). The barn door rudder was essential for the weather helm that was caused by the mast being so far forward. The also had the beam widest just aft of the mast was that is where the leaning forces are strongest. The wide beams were used as catboats have a large initial stability but can go over with too much wind. If a line is tied from the front of the gaff boom to the end of the boom the sail can bleed out excess wind, in effect turning the gaff rig into a little marconi rig, with the gaff taking the slack of the sail over the aforementioned line. A topsail could also be added to some gaff rig setups if the mast allowed for it. Catboats rigs could also be set up as a cat/yawl which can make them self tending. Gaff rigs are very forgiving.
 
I've always loved the working boats, don't know why. And that functioning centerboard knocks me out! Woohoo.
Keep up the great work Lizzie. It's lookin' good.

David (Formerly Styrene)
 
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