Historical lecture on Beetle Cat sailboats

Jul 27, 2021

MARION — Join William Womack and the Sippican Historical Society on August 26 at 7 p.m. for a lecture on the Beetle Cat Sailboat, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

The anniversary will make the Beetle Cat the oldest one design that has been continuously produced out of wood and continues to be competitively raced for the past 100 years.

Bill Womack, owner of the “Beetle Cat Boat Shop” in Warehamis a direct descendant of Miles Standish of the Mayflower, born and raised in Alabama and spent all his early summers on Onset Island in MA sailing Beetle Cats and developing a love for traditional wood boatbuilding.

After three tours in Viet Nam with a Navy Seabee team Bill worked as a civil engineer in heavy highway construction building bridges, highways and tunnels around the country for 40 years before taking up ownership of the Beetle Cat Boat Shop in 2003.

Bill Womack, the 4th caretaker of this proud little boat in the last 100 years, will take us through the history of the boat from its development by the Beetle family of New Bedford, MA in 1921 to its present-day home in Wareham, MA.

Bill will present the construction of the Beetle Cat from the cutting of the trees to the finished sailboat. The building of the boat, using very traditional, tried and proven boat building methodology, using hand tools and individual craftsmanship is very much an art form. The boat is all hand made in the USA.

The presentation will provide the viewer a glimpse into the past of traditional wood boat building. The aroma of the cedar wood, pine tar and varnish will fill the air and dreams of sailing down Buzzards Bay in a traditionally built wood boat will take you back in time to when men were iron and ships were wood.

Email info@sippicanhistoricalsociety.com to register for the lecture. Participants will receive a zoom link on the morning of the presentation.