KATRINKA

Cruiser-Racer KATRINKA

The story of Katrinka started in 1969. Designed by Bill Tripp Sr. as a SORC dominating, cruising club of America rule beater and built at Bristol Boat Company in Bristol Rhode, Island by Clint Pearson, she had nothing but the best pedigree from her time. She was beamy with a shallow draft and deep centerboard and built for the Winder family of Hamden CT to race and cruise. That they did from 1969- 1983. She participated in races all around New England before winning her class in the 1980 Newport Bermuda Race.

Not satisfied to shower her first owners with accolades and silver Katrinka has spread the wealth to all her owners with a 1st Overall finish in the Marblehead to Halifax Race for the second ownership and a 3^rd in Class finish for the current ownership in the 2009 running of the Marion to Bermuda Race.

Katrinka changed hands in 1983 after being sold to Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, bass player and drummer of the band Talking Heads. The couple’s goal was to cruise the Bahamas living aboard with their two boys and bring along Tina's father Ralph Weymouth (USN Ret. Vice Admiral) as skipper. 

Katrinka led a storied life up until 2007, where and when she was found in the back corner of Journey’s End Boatyard in Rockland, Maine. She was in (more or less) original shape but showed the signs of fifteen years of hard ocean racing followed by another twenty-three years of cruising and songwriting.

Her current owner was looking for just such a boat. Having spent time in Europe sailing on classic boats, he knew exactly what he wanted. He was looking for a 1950s or 60s vintage boat with proven open ocean capabilities yet a handy enough boat to single or short-hand sail between more adventuresome voyages.

He found that boat in Katrinka not only for her proven capabilities but also that her restoration would bring back a piece of yachting history. Now the question was who could bring her back. His first visit to Brooklin Boat Yard, where he met with then BBY President Steve White, sold him on the idea that Katrinka could be restored in the same way one would restore any historical object: fully document the boat, capture all of its details, cut the deck off, remove every piece of equipment and interior joinery, then put it all back together again as new. 

It is the deconstruction of a boat like Katrinka that tells one so much about her history; for example, what materials were available at the time? What building techniques were current in 1969? It was the early days of fiberglass construction, but the quality of the workmanship that went into her at the Bristol Boat Company was clear to see. With the deck removed and turned upside down and the hull gutted to its interior skin, we knew the job in front of us. 

In putting her back together, conversations started about what the boat’s new use profile would be and what, if anything, her new owner would like to change. Two things really stood out for the BBY crew. The first was a lack of proper ventilation, due to the time spent in a more tropical environment. The hull and deck were made of solid fiberglass which tends to sweat or condensate in a climate of cooler evenings and warmer days. The decision was made to laminate a foam core to the interior of the hull skin and the underside of the deck, not for structural reasons but to insulate the vessel and make it warmer in the cold waters of New England and cooler in more tropical waters. Another benefit of doing so is that the core would dampen the noise of waves transmitting through the hull. The second thing that jumped out at the new owner was how dark the interior felt; a lot of her interior joinery was varnished teak under a flush deck forward, so the decision was made to replace all twenty-four of her deck prisms with new glass and additionally to paint out the majority of the interior bright white with varnished Teak trim and finished her interior cabinet hardware and chainplates with polished stainless steel. 

Katrinka represents a prime example of taking a storied boat, a piece of history, and giving it another lease on life. Upon her launch here at Brooklin Boat Yard, Katrinka looked as if she had just left the builder’s yard in 1970, ready for another half-century of racing and relaxing.