17' Coquina Class Cat Ketch (2018) - CONSTANT AND FAITHFUL

I am retired and I knew I wanted to build a wooden sailboat. I was taken by the Herreshoff Coquina design so it became my first build. Apart from Geoff Kerr’s great video series on OCH and the John Brooks, Ruth Hill book “How to Build Glued Lapstrake Wooden Boats”, I had no boat building knowledge or skills and no real wood-working skills either.

The hull seemed to go together fairly well at least to my eye, but I decided the design needed more decking. However, I didn’t want to give up on the design’s handy spring loaded mast toggle partners. So I made a full surround deck with a fairly long trough leading up to the partners for stepping and un-stepping the main mast.

Then, not knowing any better, I felt the deck had to be fairly pretty and settled on mahogany and ash strips bent and curved and glued the length of the boat with ash coaming. I was limited to bending and gluing about 4 strips at a time and have never done so much cussing and swearing in my entire life — but that is what sailors do, right?

Anyway, I love the boat and it is a joy to sail. The icing on the cake was taking ‘Best In Show’ in the ‘I Built it Myself’ category at the 2018 Wooden Boat Show in Mystic, CT.