What’s a Patchogue?

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So what is a Patchogue?  Something like a cross between a pirogue and Patch Adams? Nope (but that does give me an idea for an avatar). It’s actually the name of a Native American Indian Tribe, but for our discussion it’s not a what, but a where. The village of Patchogue (named after that tribe), on the south shore of New York’s Long Island, was where the region’s greatest boat builder – Gilbert Smith – developed the Great South Bay Catboat into an art form. The Trudeau Patchogue was inspired by the designs of Smith, who as a contemporary of Nathaniel Herreshoff (the legendary Cap’t Nat was rumored to have visited Smith’s yard incognito at least once, trying to find out “how he made ‘em draw so little and go so fast”), evolved traditional workboat designs into amazing pleasure and racing craft.

Commerical Beginnings

The working boats that plied the Great South Bay in the mid and late 19th century, as platforms for such commerce as duck hunting and oystering, were designed as all such boats are –  in mind to the nautical conditions they operate in.  The Cape Cod catboats for instance, similar in purpose to Great South Bay variety, were designed to withstand the rough conditions off coastal New England – heavy construction, high freeboard, wide beam. Long Island’s Great South Bay, by contrast is a semi-protected body of water, shallow (average 6 ft. at low tide), with generally agreeable weather conditions. The boats there were lighter with a very shallow draft and lots of sail.

The rise of New York City’s leisure class coincided with the waning of hunting and shell fishing as livelihoods. Sailing moved as purely a means of commercial transportation to the realm of amateur yachtsmen, who purchased better, faster and newer boats for racing each other in recreational regattas. Smith adapted the vernacular Great South Bay Catboat to this purpose, constantly refining his designs for this demanding clientele. It is widely reputed that his boats have won more races than those constructed by any other builder on Long Island. He was most remarkable as a designer, builder and artisan as well as a stalwart believer in the beauty and strength of wind. In his decades of boatbuilding, Smith never once built a boat with a gasoline powered engine (though the Trudeau Patchogue does have that engine – shhhhh! nobody tell Gilbert Smith!)

Gilbert Smith’s Great South Bay Catboat (images © WoodenBoat magazine)

 The Trudeau Patchogue

With that bit of introduction, Trudeau proudly announces it’s latest offering – the Patchogue. It, like the great majority of Gilbert Smith’s designs, is a centerboarder catboat – one sail. Think of it as a bigger (beeger?) version of our popular Leetle Cat. The Patchogue has a list of features beyond that of her Leetle sister:

• The aforementioned motor, popular with the cruising set.
• Skipper and crew positioning, adjustable under sail, trims the heel of the boat.
• Half a dozen built-in traditional color schemes.
• 2 sail reef points.
• Rezzing mooring buoy.

Customization

As with all Trudeau boats, Patchogue is modify permissioned allowing you to make her your own. These are the links to the Photoshop PSD templates for the hull (2.07MB), naming (242KB) and sail (144KB) graphics. Also contact the Trudeau sailmaker, the very talented Bunnie Mills, inworld for further information about sail customization.

For those of you wondering about alternatives for the flag, we can’t provide a graphic for every nationality, so we suggest retrieving images from sites such as this or do a Google image search. (edit: people have asked about whether I have 3D looking wavy flag templates – I don’t as it would require your flag image as the basis for the graphic. But here is a great step by step tutorial on creating a great looking flag. It’s true, the internet does have everything. ;)

Come take a look at her at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts and (now that you know who he is ;) ) see if you don’t agree that Gilbert Smith lives on in Second Life!

Dimensions:

Trudeau Patchogue – 29 prims (carries skipper and up to two additional passengers/crew), 29 ft (8.85m) LOD, 11.5ft (3.5m) beam, 5.5ft (1.7m) draft (board down)

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