KOTICK was designed and built by George W Shiverick Boat Co some time
before 1910 on the Jones River in Kingston, Mass. Two classes of the
Cat boat were built by the Shiverick Co, the larger 17 ft and the smaller14 ft.

Of all the Cat boats built by the Boat Co. four are known to remain: The
Backajiu, and the Katinka built around 1920 , are at Mystic Seaport,
Doris Johnson's Boat of 1920 is in Plymouth Ma. and
Tom Morse's Kotick is now at The Museum of Yachting,Fort Adams in
Newport, R.I. Kotick was purchased about 1910 form the Shiverick Boat
Yard by Dr. Emma Litz, wife of William Henry Erving of Powder Point ,
Duxbury,Mass. , for their son William Henry, and teenage daughter Selma.
Young William named the family catboat the Kotick from the story of
"The White Seal" found in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.

Every spring for 60 years the family took the Kotick, with its mast down,
from the boathouse at their homeon the North side of Powder Point and
the causeway toDuxbury Beach to a mooring on the south side of the
causeway. They used the causeway to step and rig the mast.Young
William and Selma entered many races that were sponsored by the
Duxbury Yacht Club . Their formost rivals were the Robert Walkers of
Duxbury who Purchased the Katinka in 1920 form the ShiverickBoat
Yard. A serious sailing rivalry developed between William and Robert
that lasted a lifetime. The Duxbury Yacht Club gave many winners cups
to both over the years. Kotick was kept in the boat house during the winters
and maintained by Mike Linde from the Jones Boat Yard of Duxbury Mass.
When the boat became unsailable and needed restoration it was given
away rather than burned on the beach at the end of a season, as was the

custom. It was taken in 1980 by William Casbara of Wrentham, Mass
who was a carpenter that worked on the Ervings' summer home at Powder
Point. Realizing the extent of the restorations needed, and not wanting to
spend the time and effort , in 1986 he gave The Kotick to Tom Morse of
Bucks Hill,Wrentham, Mass. During the winters of 1988 and 1989 Tom
restored the catboat Kotick . In 1991 Kotick was exibited at the Annual
Boston Antique & Classic Boat Festival and won the top award for
boat restoration. Tom donated the Cat boat Kotick to The Museum of
Yachting at Fort Adams , Newport , R.I in 1993. It is on display there today.

The Catboat Kotick was found to be in very
poor condition in 1986. The boat had originally
been iron fastened. The rusting fasteners had

destroyed all the oak ribs and weakened the
planking. The ribs that had been replaced or
sistered had been done poorly. Restoration
required the careful removal of the trim, hardware,
deck canvas and enough deck and hull planking

in order to replace all the ribs. The ribs were
bent using a special cold method rather than the
traditional steam box method in order to extend the
bending time. Ribs were replaced one at a time after
the boat was securely bound to retain its' shape.

When the ribs were removed all rotten wood around
the fasteners and keel wasdrilled out and filled.
Each new rib was bedded with white lead paste
when it was installed. When all the white oak ribs
were replaced with new and all the old planking

secured, new atlantic white ceder planking and deck
were put on to replace that which was removed.
Fastener holes were filled and sanded and the deck
was re-covered with canvas. The canvas was laid

down in the tradional manner on lead paste. The
trim was replaced, a new Splashboard bent and
installed, the hardware cleaned and reinstalled , the
wooden cleats refinished and installed and the the cat
boat Kotick was finally sanded painted and varnished
more times than I care to remember.

More information about catboats can be found on the Catboat Association's site.

Send mail to: Tom Morse

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Built By: TOM MORSE
Page Up Dated 01-01-2005