Cape Cod Widegons/Knockabouts

[qm]

What was the diff. with these things? I probably can't even spell em right! ???QMBob

[Ian McColgin]

The only sailboat class I can recall that's named Widgeon is the little 12 footer made by O'Day.

The Cape Cod Knockabout is an 18' centerboard sloop, moderate to low aspect, outboard rudder, and very capeable of taking a blow. They were designed as an easy boat to sail in the often blustery southwesters of Nantucket Sound.

The Cape Cod Knockabout I know quite well as it's essentially the boat of my birth. Well, Mom and Dad interrupted a camping cruise for Mom to go to the Danbury Hospital to whelp me but I was back on the boat in about a week and prenatal experience counts.

All through my youth on Long Island Sound the enginless leaky '30's vintage Knockabout was the main feature of drifting about at the mercy of the tide on that oil slick smooth Dead Sea.

The Knockabout, now available in glass, is a superb boat in a breeze, but really a dog in light air.

G'luck.