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Thanks to the Aqua Cat, untold thousands
of people had their first sailing experience
on two hulls rather than one. This first
mass-produced fiberglass catamaran was
simple in concept and use, affordable
and ubiquitous, as resorts and boat
rentals across the U.S. and in other
countries stocked their fleets with
the compact, appealing multihull. Remarkably,
all of the above can still be said of
the Aqua Cat - 40 years after it was
introduced, it is still in production.
 When
he built the first of the 12-foot Aqua
Cats in 1960, Art Javes, striving for
simplicity, found that what made the
boat easy to assemble made it easy to
sail. The foam-filled fiberglass hulls
are joined by aluminum tubes fore and
aft, which double as a traveler and
base for the mast. The mast is supported
by an aluminum triangle whose base is
part of the frame for the 28-square
foot Dacron trampoline deck. There is
no other standing rigging; nor is there
a boom. The mast slides into a sleeve
on the leading edge of the sail. The
sail, shaped like a genoa, is big enough
at 90 square feet to provide hull-lifting
fun in a breeze but, minus a deck-sweeping
boom, is not intimidating to beginners.
Says Javes: "When you jibe, it's
like blowing your nose - no excitement
at all."
An entrepreneur named Billy Mills brought
the Aqua Cat to the mass market in 1961
when he set up American Fiberglass Corp.
to produce the boat in Norwalk, Connecticut.
With Javes managing production, the
company built nearly 1,000 Aqua Cats
a year before it was sold to a sporting
goods conglomerate in 1969. The following
year American Fiberglass was moved to
Charleston, South Carolina, and Dave
Stanton began a long association with
the Aqua Cat that continues to this
day. Stanton served as president of
the company and later bought the Aqua
Cat product line. With only minor changes
from the originalóthe hulls were
lengthened six inchesóthe Aqua
Cat continues to sell briskly. Stanton
estimates that more than 25,000 have
been sold.
"The Aqua Cat's most significant
impact on sailing, Stanton says, is
that ìthis little boat has introduced
many, many newcomers to the thrill of
sailing."
Tom Hatch, an Aqua Cat dealer since
1970 seconds that, and adds, "Countless
people began their sailing adventures
on the Aqua Cat. King Hussein of Jordan
was given one as a wedding present by
an admirer in Virginia when he married
Queen Noor. Bobby Kennedy bought one
for the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport."
The ease of handling that Art Javes
says was the first requisite in the
design of the Aqua Cat is the characteristic
that has sustained its popularity for
four decades. Many owners bought Aqua
Cats as easily assembled kits. The boat
fits on a small trailer or even a car
top. One person can sail it, but it
accommodates a family of four. It is
forgiving to sail, yet at one time competitive
sailors raced them in almost 50 fleets
across the country. Thousands of Aqua
Cats were sailing before an arguably
more famous catamaran, also in the Hall
of Fame, appeared. In fact, Art Javes
claims the first catamaran sailed by
Hobie Alter, designer of the Hobie Cat,
was - what else? - an Aqua Cat.
--Bill
Schanen, SAILING
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