Cape Cat
A boat for day-sailing wants to be of strong and reasonable light construction. She needs much more cockpit than cabin, and if the latter is of the summer variety it will be far more comfortable and convenient. All boats should have some sort of a cuddy or cabin, especially if they are to be used to take out women and children.
A day-sailing boat, if to be used for taking out shore people, should be absolutely uncapsizable and, if possible, fitted with tanks of sufficient power to float the ballast. Her rig should be simple, and her canvas of moderate expanse. The less gear and gewgaws she has about her the better, as it means a saving of work at all times, and especially in getting underway and coming to anchor.
The two best rigs for this class of boat are the cat and knockabout. Both these rigs are quick and easy to handle, and having no bowsprit, they can be brought up to a landing anywhere where there is water enough to float them.
There is no better day-sailing boat in the world than the cat that is used along our Eastern seaboard to take out fishing and sailing parties. I don't mean the over-canvased brute that is frequently met—a vessel that takes all hands to steer, and a double watch to shorten down, but the properly sparred and balanced boat. I have handled many of these boats, and under our ordinary summer conditions have found them to do what was expected of them in a boatly manner. In skillful hands they are as near being absolutely safe as it is possible for any water-borne fabric to be. One of their chief advantages is that they can be got under sail or be relieved of it quicker than any other type. They have but one sheet and two halliards to look after, and all these can be tended by one hand without leaving the cockpit.
Racing Pole-Mast Sloop
The knockabout has many of the cat's good qualities, and is in some respects a better rig, but the jib is apt to be a nuisance at times. The disadvantage of the knockabout is that, being a narrower model than the cat, you are cramped for room where it is most needed—aft. Owing to this latter rig being in fashion, the cat has fallen out of favor, but there is no better boat for the young sailor to begin his studies in. An open cat—that is, one half-decked, say of sixteen feet length—is just the thing for a boy to learn the sailor's trade in.