3 Year Circumnavigation - Selecting a Boat

[peter.bomberg]

I know I am partial to dagger boards but did you look at the Catana's, used they are in the budget and very nice from my reading (have not sailed one yet)

[Leonard Family]

Originally Posted by peter.bomberg

I know I am partial to dagger boards but did you look at the Catana's, used they are in the budget and very nice from my reading (have not sailed one yet)

The Catana is a great boat, as all the candidates really are. But the Catana is more of the race boat than the SUV. A little too narrow inside the hulls. Don't like the helm positions. And really do not want dagger boards. These are all very personal values, as I said, the Catana is a boat with a great reputation. Maybe in another life...

Thank you for the comment.

[Leonard Family]

I have just stumbles onto the new Prout boats. They have not even launched their first 50 footer yet. For anyone who wants to see the new boat, follow this link:

Prout International

I would appreciate any and all comments on the Prout line, past and current.

Scott

[Hud3]

Just took at look at your video--great job! Are you in the film business? Looks like you guys did it all in the BVI (including Shot-Skis at the Willy T! )

[Palarran]

That was a great video. I was able to re-live vicariously a couple of our trips through yours. Thanks. I'll be in Miami looking around at the cats also so if your interested in getting a beer, let me know.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by rigamarole

That was a great video. I was able to re-live vicariously a couple of our trips through yours. Thanks. I'll be in Miami looking around at the cats also so if your interested in getting a beer, let me know.

I will be there Thurs and Fri..........and having beer on the water front in the evenings.

[Leonard Family]

Originally Posted by Hud3

Just took at look at your video--great job! Are you in the film business? Looks like you guys did it all in the BVI (including Shot-Skis at the Willy T! )

Thank you.

All the video was shot with a $250 water proof camera from Sanyo, the Xacti model. Some of the stills are with the same camera and some with a high end SLR type digital camera.

The move was made using iMove '08 on a Mac.

You must be a pro to spot the Willy T from the color of the Shot-Ski alone. I tried for t-Shirt too, but I think that is just old sailor's fable.

[schoonerdog]

From what I know Broadblue first took over some of the older prout molds when Prout become bankrupt and Robert Underwood who was a managing director for Prout went to BroadBlue. Prouts were known as solid models, heavy, good woodwork. They tended to be more conservative sailors, lower to the water, narrow beam but open layout inside. The prout 45 was a very comfortable boat with great water tight bulkheads with real bolted in water tight doors. The Prout 45s were sort of the Rolls Royce of catamarans. The broad blue was also known as having very good woodwork, heavy, conservative sailors. I did see a thread list saying that perhaps Broad Blue was bankrupt and issues with the last boats. I would take this "Prout International" with a big grain of salt, as the original company is gone and this company might have very little to do with the original quality of materials, personnel, or hull designs.

Originally Posted by Leonard Family

I have just stumbles onto the new Prout boats. They have not even launched their first 50 footer yet. For anyone who wants to see the new boat, follow this link:

Prout International

I would appreciate any and all comments on the Prout line, past and current.

Scott

[schoonerdog]

It would look at the executive leadership of the company. It looks like some yacht brokers from Florida, a couple of kids who were friends from Harvard and looks like they are just out of college. I don't see ANYONE who has any experience either as a marine architect or as a boat builder. I'd say right now they are a paper company looking to get some big security deposits from someone because they think it would be fun to build catamarans. And they say that they want to become the supplier of half of the catamarans in the world building models which are at least 10 years old. Maybe they are absolutely flush with ungodly amounts of cash and can do this without any experience what so ever. But I do know that even the most experienced builder out there will have LOTS of teething pains trying to construct anything as technologically difficult as a new model of catamaran. If I were you I'd look at 8 year old boats to see how well they age and use that as a good tool for figuring out what companies build a very good product. There are many companies who are building boats which look great new, but the quality of the sunbella and sails, the jacketing of the wiring, the gelcoat and non skid, the paint and varnish and flooring materials, the adhesives they use, etc simply don't hold up and will turn into an incredible pain as you will be rebedding, resealing, rewiring everything in just a few years. See how well the doors close or if the doors close, how the veneers and flooring and countertops look, etc. It's those details that will be the difference between a low quality, high maintanence boat and a high quality, low maintance boat. Both types will look the same new.

[cubicle_zombie]

I don't know how I missed this thread before, but hopefully we'll be following along too - unfortunately my planned departure date is 2013, when the kids will be 10 and 8.

Of course I've only got about 1/4th of your initial outlay so I'm looking at a bit older cat in the 40 foot range.

Prices seem to be dropping now so hopefully I'll be able to pick up a boat in my price range.

[Intentional Drifter]

I would underscore Schoonerdog's comments and, after living aboard for a year, add one other: How easy is it to accomplish both regular maintenance and unscheduled repairs? For example, I recently changed out my water pump impellors on Yanmar 3GM30's. Took about 15 minutes on one side and 30 on the other. A buddy-boating friend has Yanmar 40's, which have a terrible location for the water pump. Took him 4 hours to do the same job, for each engine.

Some boats are designed and built in such a way that you can easily inspect important components, others aren't. For example, on my boat I can see each and every deck fitting, chainplate, backing plate, etc. If it goes through the deck, I can inspect it from the inside. Weaping, rust, etc. is quickly seen and can be acted upon before it gets worse. In many boats, these are hidden behind various panels and you may never see them until a failure happens.

How easily can you get to things like tanks, fittings, sanitation hoses, wiring trunks? Believe me, you will eventually need to get to every one of them and how they are located and what's around them greatly effect whether you can do the job yourself, how much time you will spend, and whether special tools will be required. I've seen boats where it looked like much thought went into placement, as if they were thinking about 5 years after the launch, and others where it looked like no such thought happened at all.

These things will effect your ultimate enjoyment of the boat.

ID

[Eleven]

Sad to hear someone may be cashing in on the Prout reputation.

I've just bought a Prout 31, 30 yr old and looking better than most 30 yr olds (females not included).
New engine and Standing rigging after 25yrs. Sails every seven yrs. That's low maintenance. Price? About a fifth of a new boat before you add any gear. Mine came with a complete working set of instrumentation.
Happy? You bet. First trip 8 hrs, no worries about the boat, just my skills.
Jobs to do:-
Sheeting routes are not clear. Sillette legs swivel is very stiff. AutoPilot smells hot oily when engaged for two minutes. Fill the water tank, add a black water tank, wash the boat, hoist the sails.
Is it the best boat out there? Probably not, but its mine.
Hull speed seems to be a little over seven knots which is wasting half of the 43hp Ruggerine fitted. The original 27hp Yanmar is probable about right. But then it's indirect cooling so hot water will be easy to add and it tows landing stages (almost).

Also The Heavenly Twins Association in the UK are planning to widen their range to include all Multihulls.

[Adaero]

18 months ago the Prout name re-appeared when I was doing my research. Back then it was a crap website that had been poorly translated and the factory was in China. I now see a new impressive website with lots of NAMES of exec's with backgrounds from different catamaran companies in the US.
It's a shame no one can still see the old website from 18 months ago as I don't think anyone would even consider one of these on that basis. My personal opinion is that they have bought the rights to the old Prout designs, taken them to China, probably updated the interior design and are now knocking them out at a hefty discount against the other big boys trying to get a slice of the action. There is only one testimonial available so how many have they sold?
Not a cat I would consider.

[schoonerdog]

There are several things that distinguish very nice boats and can be used as a litmus test.

1) A complete wiring diagram showing every connection and labelling at the end of the wires with actual heat shrink wire labels. This should be in great detail, not just a general 'this is where the wire conduits are' wiring diagram, but it should show every single connection on your breaker panel. The wiring should also show that it is marine grade wiring and not simply tinned. It would also be good if the ends of the wires were sealed by additional heat shrink tubing. All of the wiring should be going through dedicated ductwork.

2) The non skid should be molded in instead of painted on. Painted on non skid needs to be redone every 5-7 years, molded in non skid just lasts.

3) dedicated large water tight chambers fore and aft. Charter boats don't have these, boats built with the intent for private owners do.

4) look at the hull construction. Some would say epoxy over corecell would be one of the best hull composits. It's a little controversial, but balsa is heavier, cheaper and easier to work. Many of the best boats use synthetic cores, all of the cheap boats use balsa. But some of the better boats also use balsa core, so it depends on the actual construction technique. Personally if I found the boat builder used balsa core I would expect it to be a used primarily for cost savings.

I'd personally look at:

Antares 44 for excellent quality and safety throughout. There's a book with a title of "the worlds best yachts" I think and Antares is the only catamaran every put into the book. It's on par with the best of the best monohull makers. The only issue is they've relocated their factory to Argentina and reincorporated. However, they kept their people, so it is the same company. As with any reincorporated company I would look over the contract with a lawyer to ensure your money is safe. I'd do that with any company really.

African Cats for technical innovasion, from what I've read they are probably the innovation leader. It's controversial here, but I would absolutely look at them and make up my own mind.

St Francis 50 will probably have less build quality than Antares, but it will be strong, safe and fast and extremely nice. The reason I'm saying that about the build quality is, well, step on board one, look in the lockers, look at the wiring diagrams, look at everything on both of them and judge for yourself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the St Francis 50, but I've never seen anything to rival the PDQ.

Privilege as the best of the French for those looking for a boat with more of an SUV build. Going aboard it really takes your breath away. These are in my mind the absolutely most beautiful boats on the inside. Great quality throughout, great fixtures, very nice. For space, there will be no boat that can compare to this boat because of it's nacelle design but you still keep a good amount of netting up forward and it relatively light. There are some cats that basically have solid foredecks and I wouldn't really want to touch those.

There are other boats from down under that many recommend but I really wouldn't be able to say one way or another. I would guess if you looked over these four boats, you'd make a great choice.

[scoobert]

so did this flounder?