There are always a number of second-hand cat-boats in the market for sale at a reasonable rate, and an advertisement will bring plenty of replies. But for a tyro to purchase a boat haphazard is a mistake on general principles. It is like a sailor buying a horse. Get some honest shipwright or boat builder to examine, say, some half-dozen boats whose dimensions suit you, and whose prices are about what you think you can afford. There are certain portions of a cat-boat that are subject to violent strains when the craft is under way. The step of the mast and the centerboard trunk are parts that require the vigilant eye of an expert.
Human nature is prone to temptation, and paint and putty are used quite often to conceal many important defects in a craft advertised for sale. The keen eye of a mechanic who has served his time to a boat-builder will soon detect all deficiencies of this kind, will ferret out rotten timbers, and under his advice and counsel you may succeed in picking up at a bargain some sound, seaworthy and serviceable craft in which you can enjoy yourself to your heart's content.
But if some rotten hull is foisted on you by an unscrupulous person you will be apt to "kick yourself round the block," for she will be always in need of repairs, and in the end, when she is finally condemned, you will find on figuring up the cost that it would have been money in your pocket if you had built a new boat.
The principal boat-builders of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts are men of high character, who take a pride in their work (which is thoroughly first-class), and whose prices are strictly moderate. Any one of these will construct a capital boat of good model and fair speed. I am an old crank and a bigot in many things appertaining to boats and the sea, but I hope that any reader of this who is going to build a pleasure craft will follow my advice at least in this instance: Let her be copper-fastened above and below the water-line. Don't use a single galvanized nail or bolt in her construction. See that the fastenings are clenched on a roove—not simply turned down. Don't spoil the ship for a paltry ha'porth of tar. Many builders, for the sake of economy, use galvanized iron throughout, and will take a solemn affidavit that it is quite as good as copper. But in the innermost cockles of their hearts they know they are wrong. Others more conscientious use copper fastenings below the water-line and galvanized iron above; but copper throughout is my cry, and so will I ever maintain while I am on this side of the Styx.
Sometimes one may pick up a good serviceable boat at a Navy Yard sale. Uncle Sam's boats are of fair design and well built. They are often condemned because they are what is called "nail sick," a defect which can be easily remedied. Occasionally a steamship's life-boat can be bought for a trifle, and if it be fitted with a false keel with an iron shoe on it, will prove thoroughly seaworthy and a moderately good sailer.
Mr. E. F. Knight, the English barrister and author of the "Cruise of the Falcon," tells how he bought a life-boat condemned by the Peninsular and Oriental Company. She was thirty feet long with a beam of eight feet, very strong, being built of double skins of teak, and, like all the life-boats used by that company, an excellent sea boat. This craft he timbered and decked, rigged her as a ketch, and crossed the North Sea in her, going as far as Copenhagen and back, and encountering plenty of bad weather during the adventurous voyage. Mr. Knight is a believer in the pointed or life-boat stern for a small vessel. He was caught in a northwest gale, in the Gulf of Heligoland, in the above-mentioned craft, and had to sail sixty miles before a high and dangerous sea. His boat showed no tendency to broach to, "but rushed straight ahead across the steep sea in a fashion that gave us confidence and astonished us. Had she had the ordinary yacht's stern to present to those following masses of water, instead of a graceful wedge offering little resistance, we should have had a very uncomfortable time of it. Many men dislike a pointed stern and consider it ugly. However that may be it behaves handsomely, and we should certainly recommend any amateur building a sailing boat for coasting purposes to give her the life-boat stern."
Mr. Knight fitted his boat with lee boards, which no doubt served their purpose admirably. I should, however, favor a false keel and an iron shoe as being more efficient and less unsightly. I should not advise the purchaser of a condemned life-boat to have her fitted with a centerboard. The cost would be high, and unless the job was done in a first-class manner by a man experienced at this sort of work it would be very unsatisfactory.
A "nail-sick," clencher-built boat should be hauled up on the beach and filled with water. Every leak should be marked on the outside with chalk or white paint. After all the leaks have been discovered, run the water out of her and dry her thoroughly. Next examine every nail and try the lands or joinings of the planks with the blade of a very thin knife. Any rivets which have worked loose must be taken out and replaced with nails and rooves of a larger size. Through the chief parts of the bottom it may be necessary to put an additional nail between every two originally driven. Many of the old nails which are only a little slack should be hardened at their clench by a few taps from inside, one hand holding a "dollie" against the head of the nail on the outside. Melt a pound of pitch in a gallon of boiling North Carolina tar and give her bottom a good coat inside, filling the lands or ledges well. The garboard strake fastenings and also those of the hooded ends should be carefully caulked. So should the seams. The seams of the planking should also be caulked.
There are various methods of making a boat unsinkable. Cork is sometimes used, but it takes up too much room and is not so buoyant as air. Copper or zinc cases, made to fit under the thwarts and in various odd corners, have been fitted in boats, but their cost is high. Amateurs have used powder flasks and cracker cans, with their covers soldered on, cigar boxes, covered with duck and painted, bladders inflated with air, etc., etc. A boat displacing one ton will take about forty cubic feet of air to make her unsinkable.