Beetle Cat Boats

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Photo by: Billy Black

Womack is a civil engineer. Although he was born and raised in Alabama, he can trace his roots to the Mayflower’s landing at Plymouth Rock. During the 1950s, he visited Cape Cod with his parents and remembers seeing Beetle Cats everywhere. After earning his degree from Georgia Tech, he spent four years in the Navy, some of that in Vietnam working with SEAL teams.

“I got out of the Navy in 1970,” he said, “and I’ve been building highways and bridges ever since.” He worked for the Perini Corp. out of its office in Framingham, Massachusetts. In 1998, he abandoned the corporate world and began a consulting business, which he continues to run. “This boatbuilding thing is a whole other story.”

In 2002, Womack commissioned Charlie York to build a new Beetle for him, and by the spring of 2003, it still wasn’t finished. Womack told York that he was going to pick up the boat, done or not, and during the course of their conversation at the shop, York said that, for the right money, Womack could buy the whole operation. Boat in tow, Womack headed for home.

“I was 10 minutes up the road,” Womack said. “I called him, and it’s the only time in six months he answered the damn phone.” Womack returned to the shop, and within 15 minutes he and York made a handshake deal. Under York’s management, Beetle Inc. built three or four boats a year, stored maybe 25, and grossed about $150,000 annually. Since Womack has been CEO, the company stores 180 boats, builds 10 to 12 new ones annually and has a thriving business in repair. The crew also has built an Alerion, a 28-foot Hanley catboat, a Beetle Cat 14 and a healthy number of flat-bottom skiffs. Gross earnings have reached about $1 million annually. “Every penny we’re making, we’re putting right back into the business,” Womack said.



Beetle Inc. is a genuine production shop, building catboats the way the original Beetle Boat Co. did. “If we’re handcrafting everything from scratch,” Womack said, “nobody could buy one.” The shop makes all of the parts early in the fall and starts building boats right after Thanksgiving. “We’ll work eight to 10 weeks and put 12 boats together,” Womack said. “It takes five or six weeks to get them through finish.”

At the Leo J. Telesmanick Championship Regatta, run out of the Weekapaug Yacht Club in Westerly, Rhode Island, this past August, I spoke with one woman who lived within sight of the race course and had been watching Beetles for years. She longed to have a boat of her own, and when the youngest of her children entered adulthood, she bought a Beetle. She raced the regatta with her teenage daughter. One of Beetle Inc.’s customers bought his seventh catboat when he was 91. He’d courted his wife in a Beetle prior to World War II, where he was a hero in the Pacific theater.

Beetle Cats are so appealing that they have a life of their own. The International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, Rhode Island, restores a handful of Beetles every year, buying parts from Beetle Inc. The New England Beetle Cat Boat Association provides owners and would-be owners a place to get advice and make contact with other enthusiasts. Now that Womack and his band of craftsmen have the reins at Beetle Inc., the class has a bright future.

“I don’t really own this boat shop,” Womack said. “I’m the caretaker of this boat.”

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LOA: 12’4”
LWL: 11’8”
BEAM: 6’0”
DRAFT: 8” to 2’0”
SAIL AREA: 100 sq. ft.
WEIGHT: approx. 450 lb.
BASE PRICE: $16,995

Hull Construction
Frames: Steam-bent white oak
Keel and solid stem: Steam-bent white oak
Planking: ½-inch Atlantic white cedar
Coamings and rails: White oak
Deck: ½-inch Atlantic white cedar covered with canvas
Hardware: Custom silicon bronze
Fasteners: Silicon bronze (domestic)

Beetle Inc., 508-295-8585; www.beetlecat.com