East Bay, RI
East Bay Newspapers
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Catboat survives close to a century
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WESTPORT - The story of John Conway's catboat should have ended when the Hurricane of 1938 pitched it into a tree two miles inland and it was declared a total loss. Or more recently when it was rescued from a previous owner who was ready to turn it into what Mr. Conway described as "fuel for the New Bedford Bonfire of 1992."
In both cases, men with an enduring love for boats prevailed.
On Aug. 18, at the Macomber Community Center on Main Road, Mr. Conway presented a slide show based on his book, "Catboat Summers," which he published in 2003. Displaying the confidence of an experienced mariner shooting into the wind to pick up a mooring, Mr. Conway chronicled a brief history of catboats, his boyhood introduction to boating and the story of his own 24-foot catboat, Buckrammer, which he has owned for the past 12 years.
He called it "the history of how my family and Buckrammer collided."
Buckrammer has been a steady summer presence for the Conways since 1993, when Mr. Conway's older daughter spotted an ad for a 24-foot vintage Crosby. The boat was built by Charles H. Crosby in the famous Crosby Boatyard in Osterville in 1908.
Over its lifetime, the catboat has been used as a utility pickup boat, pleasure cruiser and cargo carrier. In 1919, its cargo included codfish and cow manure.
The Saltonstall family owned the boat between 1924 and 1937 and used it during their summers in Marion.
The Coggeshall family of Osterville owned the catboat at the time of the 1938 hurricane and rebuilt it after it was damaged. They sold it in 1954.
When Mr. Conway bought it, the seller, Cal Perkins of Mattapoissett, was its 18th owner. Mr. Perkins said he was selling the boat because he was tired of the never-ending work on restoration and maintenance.
Mr. Conway plugged the holes, put her in the water and sailed her back to Westport.
Messing about in boats comes naturally to Mr. Conway, who's been doing it since he was a 10-year-old plunking about with his brothers in a small plywood pram on Cape Cod vacations. As they grew up, so did their aspirations. By high school, they were using an Amesbury skiff to salvage golf balls from an aptly named water hazard on a local golf course, making as much as $1,200 one summer.
Mr. Conway's boating adventures were in dry-dock while raising his own family but resurfaced when they began summering in Westport.
"About 20 years ago, we bought a place here near the harbor and before too long we got an itch to go boating again," Mr. Conway said.
From the audience was heard a quizzical "We?" from Mr. Conway's younger daughter, Caroline. Her question caused Mr. Conway's face to turn red and produced a hearty laugh from the audience.
Truth be told, all the Conways seem to have been hooked by the boating bug. The slide presentation, accompanied by music from swing to Celtic, showed the family growing up on the water beside the various prams, skiffs, and Beetlecats they acquired over the years.
Any captain willing to use house paint on his boat, let a little sand accumulate in the cockpit and take a crew of kids under 12 on an overnighter qualifies as unpretentious. For the Conways, a sense of fun always trumped spending time on varnishing.
Sailboats, with their joys and challenges, can have lasting impact on those who sail them. On a recent sail to Osterville, Mr. Conway was approached by gray-headed men with tears in their eyes saying that learning to sail on his boat had shaped their lives in the 1930s and 1940s.
Catboats at a glance
*Original design built at Crosby Boat Yard in Osterville from 1850s until the 1920s; at peak Crosby could manufacture 16 full-sized wooden boats per week.
* Designed for fishermen, easy for one person to handle.
* Had one mast, set well forward in the bow, with one gaff rigged sail
* Between 16 and 26 feet in length.
* Hull generally half as wide as it is long, large capacity cockpit.
* Centerboard can be raised for work in shallow water.
* A one-ton, 18-foot catboat draws only 18 inches with the board up.
* Buckrammer made in Osterville by Crosby Boat Yard in 1908.
* Fully loaded Buckrammer needs only two feet of water to sail; when center board is down, it draws seven feet of water.
By Paul Tamburello
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http://www.eastbayri.com/print/297175567733198.php
Copyright © 2003, The East Bay Newspapers
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