Inland Cat is a class of one- or two-man
sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture.
Types
Although sailboat terminology ...
s, almost exclusively found on
Lake George,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
/
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
. The craft is approximately 14.5 feet in length, with a 4.5 foot beam. The sail is a
Marconi rig
A Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig, or Marconi rig is a configuration of mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. This configuration was developed in Bermuda in the 1600s; the term ''Marconi' ...
(aka
Bermuda rig
A Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig, or Marconi rig is a configuration of Mast (sailing), mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. This configuration was developed in Bermuda in the 1600s; the t ...
), with the mast far forward on the hull, as is the norm for a
cat boat
A catboat (alternate spelling: cat boat) is a sailboat with a single sail on a single mast set well forward in the bow of a very beamy and (usually) shallow draft hull. Typically they are gaff rigged, though Bermuda rig is also used. Most are ...
. The boat has a retractable galvanized steel centerboard, and a shallow-draft aluminum rudder similar in shape to
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
-style cat boats. The design was created by Norm Bell and John Larimore in the mid-1950s and used then-current
polyester resin Polyester resins are synthetic resins formed by the reaction of dibasic organic acids and polyhydric alcohols. Maleic anhydride is a commonly used raw material with diacid functionality in unsaturated polyester resins. Unsaturated polyester resins ...
and
fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...
construction techniques. The boat was perhaps over-engineered, and is quite robustly built. Many examples, including hull #2 (the second production boat) continue to race every Saturday during the summer months.
There were 250+ Inland Cats built by Bell/Larimore and a nearby boatbuilder in the 1950s thru early 1970s. The only concentration of boats is on Lake George proper, which has a few dozen surviving craft. Of these, 20+ come out to race in the "Gold" and "Silver" fleets each week during the Summer.
Due to its heavy construction and wide beam, the Inland Cat is very stable in heavy air, and not particularly fast. The class has a
PHRF
Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) is a handicapping system used for yacht racing in North America. It allows dissimilar classes of sailboats to be raced against each other. The aim is to cancel out the inherent advantages and disadvantages ...
rating of 107. It is not uncommon on balmy summer days to see the entire fleet bobbing in light air, tossed about by
jet skis
A personal watercraft (PWC), also called water scooter or jet ski, is a recreational watercraft that a rider sits or stands on, not within, as in a boat. PWCs have two style categories, first and most popular being a runabout or "sit down" wh ...
and other boat wakes.
The Inland Cat logo is a black silhouette of a cat's head (facing viewer) with a red "I" centered over it.
Dinghies
Catboats
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