Catspaw approaching Bora Bora
Catspaw is a 36 ft auxilliary cruising ketch, designed, built, maintained, and sailed for some forty years by her original owner, Russell Snyder and family. During this period she extensively and repeatedly cruised the Bahamas (as recently as early summer 2007 and 2008) and twice ventured even further afield, in 1973, to the lesser Antilles (getting as far south as Grenada) and, in 1980-1983, east to west around the world via the Panama and Suez canals. From 1986 through 1991, she was employed in the Bight of Abaco, Bahamas, in an NSF sponsored field project to study the wind generation of ocean waves. In January, 2010, Catspaw was sold to Valentin Argirov of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Catspaw is of composite construction. Her hull is fiberglass over strip planked Philippine mahogany. Her decks are fiberglass over fir plywood. Spars are solid fir, laminated. Resorcinol glue has been employed throughout her construction. The resulting monocoque hull is intrinsically light and strong. Below decks Catspaw has the warm appearance and ready adaptability of a wooden boat. The strip planked skin is exposed throughout her interior, and the varnished mahogany of the skin, clamp, deck beams, other structural members, trim, and vertical panels are nicely balanced by the matte white of the overhead, bulkheads, frames, cabinet and drawer faces, and formica countertops.
Above decks Catspaw is painted out with a two part polyurethane, white with a gray strip. The only exception here is the varnished trim on the (removable) cockpit table, deployed extensively when cruising.
Catspaw's low masthead Marconi ketch rig is simple, flexible, and easy to manage. Her working sail plan is pretty evenly divided, allowing identical modest sized single purchase winches to be used for the main sheet, jib sheets, and halyards. Four-part block and tackles control the main boom and the mizzen boom. The mizzen sheet does not use a winch. The jib sheets are normally two part (running through blocks attached to the clew of the jib). Current sheets and halyards are all 1/2 in three strand dacron. Halyards are external to the masts.
Catspaw has not been designed to win races, but she will get you there in good time, and you will enjoy your stay when you arrive.
What sets Catspaw apart is her efficient use of space and sensible layout, both above and below deck. Designed for family cruising in warmer climates, this layout features a shallow aft cockpit overlaying an aft stateroom. Forward of the cockpit is a short deckhouse. (The cockpit coaming is an extension of the strip planked sides of this house.) Catspaw's interior is accessed from the cockpit via a sliding hatch in the roof of this house (aft and just starboard of amidships) that opens onto a ladder leading to the galley below. A dodger shields the open hatch from spray.
Three bulkheads divide the interior into four compartments. The aft bulkhead separates the galley from the aft stateroom, and the main bulkhead separates the galley from the saloon. Access to the aft stateroom from the galley is down through an opening in the aft bulkhead on the port side. Access from the galley forward to the saloon is down through an opening in the main bulkhead on the starboard side. A second opening in the main bulkhead on the port side above the galley counter allows one to pass food through from the galley to the saloon dinette. The forward bulkhead separates the saloon from the forepeak. Access to the forepeak is up through an opening in the forward bulkhead on the starboard side.
This configuration provides an open path below servicing all compartments, with nominal 5 ft 11 in headroom along its entire length. (Six-footers will occasionally have to stoop.)
The aft stateroom features two berths that converge on the transom. Two ports in the transom and an aft hatch in the main deck just aft of the cockpit open onto the head of these berths. Forward of these berths are a pair of vanities. Storage shelves and drawers lie under the berths and above and below the vanities.
Under the galley sole lies the engine, fully accessible through a hatch in this sole. A second adjacent hatch, aft of the engine hatch, covers a pair of 100 amp hr storage batteries, suspended above the shaft. (The horizontal shaft is in two sections and is fully accessible along its entire length. A pillow block in the aft stateroom supports the aft section of this shaft.) Port and starboard of the engine are two fiberglass fuel tanks, built into and suspended from the galley sole. The galley proper is on the port side, and the chart table and refrigerator are on the starboard side. The vessel's electrical panel is amidships beneath the wraparound counter at the forward end of the galley. This panel runs fore and aft, with all meters, switches, and fuses fronting on the step down into the saloon. The wiring on the opposite face of the panel is accessible behind an aft facing cabinet door under the galley counter.
Under the saloon sole are a pair of removable aluminum water tanks. Port and starboard above the sole are two sets of drawers. Above the drawers on the port side is the dinette. Above the drawers on the starboard side are a lower and upper berth. The dinette table lowers into an additional double berth. Above and outboard of the dinette on the port side are an entertainment center, wine rack, and book shelf.
The forepeak is dedicated primarily to storage. Two large shelves forward accomodate sailbags, awnings, outboard motor, inflatable, and other large gear. Mooring lines, fenders, and other lines hang from rails attached to the underside of the shelves. Smaller gear, tools, supplies, and spare parts are stored in three banks of drawers and cabinets just forward of the forward bulkhead on the starboard side.
Accomodations on Catspaw are comfortable but not luxurious. There is no shower. (If you want a shower, you go for a swim, or you douse yourself with a bucket of seawater on deck.) The head is in the forepeak, tucked behind the mainmast on the port side. Some privacy is afforded by the mast and by a curtain spanning the opening into the forepeak. Outboard of the head and extending forward of the head is a small vanity counter with sink. An additional set of drawers hangs from this counter, and a set of shelves is above and outboard of this counter.
A second outdoor head is integrated into the boomkin aft of the cockpit. This boomkin also serves a number of other purposes. It provides access to the aft end of the mizzen boom and a pair of lower attachment points for the block and tackle controlling this boom. It provides access (through a midships hatch at its forward end into which is cut the head) to a swimming ladder that hangs from the boomkin. Catspaw's outboard rudder is controlled by a tiller that extends into the cockpit. This rudder is also controlled by a two-axis wind vane steerer coupled to a trim tab on the trailing edge of the rudder. This steerer is mounted on the boomkin to starboard of the hatch. A control post with compass and with throttle and transmission controls extends vertically into the cockpit from the aft stateroom below. This post also provides a mount for a removable cockpit table.
Immediately forward of the deckhouse is a deckbox for running gear, and, port and starboard of this deckbox, are two fiberglass decktanks, one for gasoline and the other for kerosene. A large open deck extends from here to the head of the vessel, broken only by a skylight above the saloon, the mainmast, an aft mount for the hard dinghy, a forward hatch over the forepeak, the bits at the aft end of the bowsprit, and the bowsprit itself. The entire deck is rimmed with a high bulwark (a capped extension of the strip-planked skin) and lifeline. The dinghy sits, upside down, over the forward hatch and much of the inboard half of the bowsprit. Two working CQR anchors (25 lb each) hang from the outboard half of the bowsprit. The associated ground tackle for each anchor (30 ft of 3/8 in chain and 150 ft of 5/8 in nylon rode are stored on deck, the chain in a fiberglass bin straddling the bowsprit just inboard of the bulwark. There is no anchor windlass and (by design) no chain locker below. (A third 45 lb storm CQR and an extended length of unused storm chain are stored beneath the sole in the forepeak.)
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