Page:Small-boat sailing; an explanation of the management of small yachts, half-decked and open sailing-boats of various rigs; sailing on sea and on river; cruising, etc (IA smallboatsailing01knig).pdf/92

 handiest and quickest of boats for turning to windward in narrow waters. The Una boats built on the English coasts—at Cowes or Southampton, for example—are of deeper draught than the orthodox cat-boats of America, and are more comfortable in a choppy sea.

A cat-boat has an almost flat floor. It has very great beam in proportion to its length, the former being in some boats more than half the latter; its deck-plan bears some resemblance to a flat-iron. It therefore has a very light draught. A large cat-boat, in which the author sailed for some months on the coast of Florida, only drew three inches with her centre-board up. The American cat-boat is generally provided with a wooden centre-board; in England an iron centre-board is preferred. The mast is stepped right in the bows, and the one sail, which has a gaff and boom, is shaped as in Fig. 47. The sail is held to the mast either by lacing or by mast-hoops. The sail is hoisted by a single halyard, which, as will be seen on referring to the figure, is made fast to the gaff, leads through a double block on the mast, then through a single block at the jaws of the gaff, then through the double block again, and lastly down the mast to the cleat on deck, to which the fall is fastened. The effect of hauling on the halyard is first to hoist the throat of the sail well up, and then to set up the peak. The boom should always be provided with a topping lift, for unless the boom