From memory - the Catyak 9' 3" long 53" beam, 45 sq ft lateen rigged sail. Max payload 325 lb. Shocking orange rotomolded polyethylene hull, cast aluminum fittings, aluminum tubing for trampoline supports. Skeg keel (small) so it side slips like the dickens. It only weighed 95 lbs.

I was 14 or 15 ('74-'75) I was given the choice of a sailboat or braces and I picked this boat. I got sail number 666 (I never put it on, but I thought of many creative names to go with it). It cost about $400. The YMCA was using them for sailing lessons because it was so stable.

I loved it, I could go out in stinking fast winds and pass keelboats and dinghy's. I sailed it hard (Lake Carlyle in Illinois, 10 mi X 3 mi North-South) for about a year, then we moved away from good sailing lakes, except for one summer in 1980.

I later moved to Oklahoma City and brought it out of retirement and sailed on Lake Hefner (Oklahoma City has 16 mph average wind speed). I cartopped it all the time on my '82 Plymouth Champ (8 fwd speeds, 2 reverse). I could stop my car and be sailing in less than 15 minutes. I pulled it off the cheapo roof rack, un-wrapped the sail, sheet, and halyard from around the gaff, boom, and mast, stepped the mast, slid the pins in the pintel and gudgeon, hoisted the sail and launched. I went out in force 5+ often. I once did laps around a regatta of J24's on a hard blowing day, and got to see someone blowing their peas of the lee rail. I was riding a bronco and having a blast.

I'm back sailing dinghies, V15, but I love cats. My 13 year old son has gotten to sail dreamboats from my memories, Laser, E-Scow, and his first cat, a Hobie Wave. I googled for catyak just for a drive down memory lane and came across this link. Thanks.