23' Prins Townsend Tern Cat Ketch (2011) -CARRIMAL

Townsend Tern Catketch.

This unique vessel started out in 2007 as an idea of Chelcie and Kathy Liu and they approached Kees Prins, an excellent boat designer/builder in Port Townsend, Washington. They had various criteria. They wanted a boat that was trailerable, easily rigged and handled, yet commodious and capable. She also needed ample storage for extended cruising. A few years ago we put her through her paces by traveling 10,000 miles from California to Florida to New England and back. We used her as a travel trailer in between launches. The next summer we spent two months in the Pacific Northwest. 2024 brought calamity to the mountains of Southern California and we barely escaped the Bridge Fire but the boat offered us refuge during our evacuation. 2025 resulted in a relocation to Southern Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay. Kees created a masterpiece in small boat design that not only allows for comfortable living aboard for weeks at a time, but also sails like a significantly larger vessel with the ease and simplicity of a dinghy. The rig was designed by Bruce Kirby (of Laser fame) for the 23’ Norwalk Island Sharpie and shipped from Australia along with the fully battened tan bark sails. Okoume plywood and Sapele mahogany are used for most of the structure and the deck framing is yellow cedar. The Wallas stove/heater, the Airhead composting toilet which slides out of the way under the bridge deck and the ingenious closing motor well that creates a fair hull and accommodates the Torqeedo electric motor tick off some of the necessary boxes. The boat was finished at the Northwest Maritime Center after Kees took a position there. Many additional folks had a hand in her completion. The egg crate construction makes her hardy but we describe her as a jewelry box. The craftsmanship is apparent everywhere you look.