Free Standing Carbon Fiber Masts

Free Standing Masts on the Great Ketch inevitably becomes a topic of conversation at my marina because it is the only boat in the marina with free standing masts. Great Ketch may very well be the only cat ketch boat with free standing masts on the entire lake of Oneida.


I recently was contacted by someone interested in learning about Cat Ketches because he was interested in purchasing one. His interest was with a 38 foot Herreshoff Cat Ketch made in 1983.
We spoke and emailed a few times a shared questions and answers, and it was soon after our last phone call that a day later I discovered a recorded interview with Eric Sponberg, who designed the free standing carbon fiber masts for the Herreshoff cat ketch boats built by John Newton of Cat Ketch Yachts. The web site where I located the Eric Sponberg interview is at http://proboatradio.com/2012/05/17/free-standing-rigs/ the proboatradio.com site.

For those looking for details about free standing masts and those designed by Eric Sponberg, I recommend visiting his home page web site http://www.sponbergyachtdesign.com/.

The two most regarded benefits of free standing masts are safety and better sail shape.