For the love of sailing Kathleen

In a previous life, Tim Fallon was a world champion team racer but now embraces another corner of the sport:

It was a gray and cold April morning in 2006 when Tim Fallon launched his 28-foot catboat Kathleen. Fallon, a software engineer from Wareham, Massachusetts, was worried about how she would sail. Were the historical documents and drawings he and the boatbuilders at the Beetle Cat Boat Shop had followed accurate?

Fallon had opted for a tiller instead of a wheel, sacrificing some mechanical advantages for the steering method he was more comfortable with. Would there be too much weather helm on the boat as a result? How would he ever handle the 900-square-foot mainsail attached to the 36 foot 6 inch boom? The odds seemed to be stacked against him. Still, she launched with ease, and by July she was ready for her shakedown cruise.

The wind was perfect on Buzzards Bay that July day, blowing around 10 knots, and the two-year process to bring the hundred-year-old C.C. Hanley design to life had finally reached its end. While some might wonder why Fallon would build a boat designed over a century ago when modern sailboats are on offer, it might make sense after seeing Kathleen sail. – Full report