By thefluidpen



Note for non-sailors: Wyliecats are not related to felines. They are a specific type of sailboat, but rather than having two hulls like catamarans (which are also often called "cats"), they feature a free-standing mast that carries a mainsail and no jib. But as C Squared will show, a catboat can fly spinnakers.

Cat-rigged boats bring back memories of youth when everything I needed to know about sailing I learned on small, single-handed dinghies. Borrowing from Jean-Jacques Rousseau who coined the phrase Back to Nature, these boats, without being primitive, bring us Back to Basics. Their origins can be traced back hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, to the junk-rigged workboats of the Chinese or the Arab dhows.

Wyliecat's smaller siblings are Olympic classes like the Laser and the Finn, which both have a single sail and a flexible, freestanding mast. Either one of them figures prominently on the resume of great sailors like Paul Elvstrom, Russell Coutts, Paul Cayard, Jochen Sch�mann, Peter Holmberg, Robert Scheidt or Ben Ainslie.

The simple rig and the efficient hull shape of Wyliecat boats are essential for easy operation and good performance, which in turn create a high rate of usage. You can bring a full racing crew, a bunch of friends who don't know a tack from a gybe, the family, or just yourself. You may also further your career by taking your boss, some colleagues and a few sandwiches for a quick lunch under sail.

Wyliecats are owned and operated by beginners and experienced hands alike. Both, Tom Wylie and his business partner Dave Wahle are respected and successful sailors in their own right. In jest Wahle once said that they've "bummed around boats for a living," which is probably why sailors who know the oceans as well as the back of their hand, have Wylie-designed boats. Among them are Skip Allan, Commodore Warwick Tompkins, Bruce Schwab who raced the 2002 Around Alone and the last Vendee Globe, Michael Katz, a doctor who's owned four different Wyliecats, and Randy Repass, the founder of West Marine, who cruises his 65-foot Wylie ketch in the South Pacific.

In our case, C Squared, which in the meantime has arrived safely in Ft. Lauderdale, will be raced in Key West by a team that is led by noted Bay Area yachtsman Bill Erkelens, the former COO of America's Cup contender BMW Oracle Racing, and includes boat owner Charles Ray, Scott Easom, sailmaker Bill Columbo, Gary Sadamori, and three bluewater experts who own Wylie boats, Robert Flowerman, Johnathan and Sue Livinston.

The next installment of this blog will be filed from Ft. Lauderdale.