The Capri 16, also called the Catalina 16, is an American
trailerable sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture.
Types
Although sailboat terminology ...
that was designed by
Frank W. Butler
Frank Willis Butler (January 17, 1928 – November 15, 2020) was the founder of Catalina Yachts, one of the biggest boat designers and manufacturers in the world.
The early Wesco years
Born in California in 1928, Butler started his career ...
as a
pocket cruiser
A pocket cruiser is a sailboat designed for recreational cruising and club racing, under in length.
Like the similar and usually smaller trailer sailer they have design features to make it possible to tow them with passenger vehicles, such as ...
and first built in 1987.
[Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', page 24. ]International Marine
S&P Global Inc. (prior to April 2016 McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013 The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are finan ...
/McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referen ...
, 2010.
Production
The design was built by
Catalina Yachts
Catalina Yachts is a U.S.-based builder of fiberglass monohull sloop-rigged sailboats ranging in sizes from eight to 54 feet in length. It was founded in 1969 in Hollywood, California by Frank Butler .
Catalina Yachts is one of the largest boat m ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
from 1987 to 2005 with 500 boats completed, but it is now out of production.
Design
The Capri 16 is a recreational
keelboat
A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...
, built predominantly of
fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...
, with
teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...
wood trim. It has a
fractional sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...
rig, a
raked stem
The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively.
Description
The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up to ...
, a plumb
transom, a transom-hung
rudder
A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw a ...
controlled by a
tiller
A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder ...
and a fixed
wing keel
The winged keel is a sailboat keel layout first fitted on the 12-metre class yacht ''Australia II'', 1983 America's Cup winner.
Design
This layout was adopted by Ben Lexcen, designer of ''Australia II''. Although Ben Lexcen "had tried the winge ...
. It displaces and carries of ballast.
The boat has a draft of with the standard wing keel.
The boat is normally fitted with a small
outboard motor
An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method o ...
for docking and maneuvering.
The design has sleeping accommodation for two people, with two long, straight settees in the main cabin. There is a space for an
ice box
An icebox (also called a cold closet) is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common early-twentieth-century kitchen appliance before the development of safely powered refrigeration devices. Before the development of electric refrig ...
and stowage in the forepeak. The
head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may no ...
is a portable type, located just aft of the
companionway
In the architecture of a ship, a companion or companionway is a raised and windowed hatchway in the ship's deck (ship), deck, with a ladder leading below and the hooded entrance-hatch to the main cabins. A companionway may be secured by doors or, ...
ladder. Cabin headroom is .
The design has a
hull speed
Hull speed or displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to-t ...
of .
Operational history
In a 2010 review Steve Henkel wrote, "as sailboats of this size go, the cockpit is larger and the cabin is smaller than average. The 425-pound wing keel is intended to combine shallow (2' 5") draft for gunkholing with reasonable windward performance—although this puts draft near the upper limit for convenient trailering. This might make a good first boat for a young couple. Best features: ... Construction is simple but neat, and adequate for this size and type of craft. The boat seems well designed and the sailplan looks manageable and efficient, though perhaps on the small side for really spritely performance. Worst features: Compared with her comp
titor
John Titor and (TimeTravel_0) are pseudonyms used on the Time Travel Institute and Art Bell's Post-to-Post forums during 2000 and 2001 by a poster claiming to be an American military time traveler from 2036. Titor made numerous vague and specif ...
, the Capri 16 has ... less headroom (though her storage space below is about at the average of her comp
titor
John Titor and (TimeTravel_0) are pseudonyms used on the Time Travel Institute and Art Bell's Post-to-Post forums during 2000 and 2001 by a poster claiming to be an American military time traveler from 2036. Titor made numerous vague and specif ...
). On the other hand, after all, she’s only intended to be a weekender; and her two berths are long enough for the tallest sailors."
See also
*
List of sailing boat types
The following is a partial list of sailboat types and sailing classes, including keelboats, dinghies and multihull ( catamarans and trimarans).
Olympic classes
World Sailing Classes
Historically known as the IYRU (International Yacht Racing ...
References
External links
Photo of a Capri 16Photo of a Capri 16 on its trailerPhoto of a Capri 16 interior
{{Trailer sailers and Trailer yachts worldwide
Keelboats
1980s sailboat type designs
Sailing yachts
Trailer sailers
Sailboat types built by Catalina Yachts
Sailboat type designs by Frank Butler