- Outer planking, oiled and painted Catboat Blue, matte
- Sheer band, white, one plank wide
- Gunwale and rubbing strake, black
- Steam-bent ribs, open framed interior
- Transom-hung rudder with hand tiller
- Single mast, sail brailed; no motor
Paint the Catboat
Take a good look at the reference, then see how close you can get to its colour using the pigments provided.
Apply this recipe?
The paint goes on once. There is no second coat.
Colour in motion.
"No two catboats are alike."— Cayman Compass, 2020
Your mix is your own take on it, reflecting the individuality of the original builders and, to us, the essence of Cayman Style: resourcefulness, made beautiful.
Catboat
Blue
Colour record / player mix
There's a reason for the blue.
The first Cayman catboat, The Terror, was built in 1904 by Captain Daniel Jervis of Cayman Brac, a turtling captain who wanted something steadier and quicker to turn than the dugout canoes carried aboard the schooners.1,2 Sharp at both ends, with a single sail set well forward to leave room for hauling turtle aboard, the design was copied across all three islands and became the everyday boat of the first half of the twentieth century: fishing, freight, travel between districts, even an ambulance.3,4
And the blue? According to the National Trust for the Cayman Islands and builder Captain Kem Jackson, it became the custom to paint catboats blue to cut the glare of sun on sea reflecting back into the fishermen's eyes.2,5 The National Gallery of the Cayman Islands describes the characteristic blue paint as part of what made the boats the pickup trucks of early Caymanian life.6 Today the Cayman Islands Catboat Club keeps the surviving boats sailing from its clubhouse on Whitehall Bay, George Town.3
No two were exactly alike. There were never written plans. A builder put a keel down in the yard, went into the bush with an axe, and shaped the boat around the tree he could find: sixteen and a half feet, seventeen, eighteen. As Catboat Club president Jerris Miller puts it, that's what you got for a boat; they're all different, yet all the same basic design, and every district had a dozen people who could build one from nothing.8 That is the spirit this game borrows. The blue is recognisable, but it was never a formula; each boat carried its builder's hand, his timber and his eye. Your mix is your own take on it, which is exactly how the original builders worked, and, to us, the essence of Cayman Style: resourcefulness, made beautiful.
| Construction notes | From the record |
|---|---|
| 01 / Size | Between 14 and 20 feet long; the first, The Terror, was 14 feet by 3 feet 8 inches and took 30 days to build.2 |
| 02 / Timber | Plopnut for its natural curves; mahogany, fiddlewood and pomperra for the ribs; mahogany planking, seams caulked with crocus.2 |
| 03 / Hull | Carvel-built with seven or eight strakes a side and 11 to 15 frames; sharp, raked ends; open, with four thwarts, the forward one reinforced to hold the mast.7 |
| 04 / Rig | Single sail set well forward, leaving room to haul turtle aboard; rowed or paddled when there was no wind.3 |
| 05 / Shape | Built "tippy" for turtling so a heavy catch could be rolled aboard; deeper-keeled and steadier when meant for carrying people.3 |
| 06 / Finish | Painted blue to cut the sun's glare off the water; white and black trim as seen on the Catboat Club's boats today.5 |
| The 3D boat in this game is a simplified interpretation of these notes, not a measured survey. | |
- Cayman Islands National Museum, Sister Islands Maritime Heritage Trail
- Cayman Compass, "Cayman catboats a link to the islands' past" (2019)
- Cayman Compass, "Bringing Cayman catboats back to life" (2014)
- Caymanian Catboat historical marker, George Town (HMdb)
- Cayman Compass, "Catboat club seeks community assistance" (2015)
- National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, "Catboats & Engineering"
- Mariners' Museum, Aak to Zumbra: A Dictionary of the World's Watercraft, Cayman catboat entry (quoted at shipstamps.co.uk)
- Cayman Compass, "Cayman catboats: 'No two were exactly alike'" (2020)