Are There Any Fully Insulated Cats?

[Anglofile]

The wife and I are thinking of sailing in Baltic waters 2011. Prefer cats, sailed warrams in S.Africa. But cannot find details of any suitably insulated boats in UK or European waters. Found one possible link at www.proutescale.com but have only found old prouts for sale at time of writing and those seem to have very inadequate insulation. Can any one help, as my wife dislikes the cold!

[Talbot]

To the best of my knowledge, there are no modern cats manufactured with the sort of insulation you are discussing. You would need to consider a custom build.

Recommend you look at the St Francis, as they will do custom (at a price)

[neelie]

Can one not consider the foam core to be insulation?

Nevertheless, I think the bigger problem will be in actually heating the massive volume within a Cat.

[barnakiel]

Hi,

1) You will not need any insulation - it is not cold there in the summer, and nobody sails there in the winter. Book for June/July though, early Sept can be still good.
2) Any boat built of sandwich can be considered insulated, thus all FP, Lagoons etc are insulated.

Regards,
b.

[Jeannius]

Plenty of foam in the hull and decks of a Privilege. You won't be cold when you are inside.

[Talbot]

Yes a foam core does provide some insulation, but you can significantly increase that if you want to.

The biggest problem will be condensation on the windows and hatches, I know one couple who use cling film on their hatches to make an insulated layer, and this does make a diffference.

[Mark424]

See also:
http://www.bethandevans.com/pdf/Higher%20latitudes.pdf
(includes some discussion of condensation, hatches, and coverings)

http://www.bethandevans.com/pdf/High...de%20equip.pdf

[Adaero]

Originally Posted by Anglofile

The wife and I are thinking of sailing in Baltic waters 2011. Prefer cats, sailed warrams in S.Africa. But cannot find details of any suitably insulated boats in UK or European waters. Found one possible link at www.proutescale.com but have only found old prouts for sale at time of writing and those seem to have very inadequate insulation. Can any one help, as my wife dislikes the cold!

I can't comment on any of the other modern cats as I haven't looked that closely but I know on our Leopard every roof panel and quite a number of wall panels are all attached using velcro. Access for maintenance is brilliant but it also means that you could very easily fit insulation into these areas. Behind most of these panels you have around 150 to 200mm (6 to 8") of empty space, just make sure you keep the weight of the insulation as light as possible.
It has crossed my mind a couple of times to do the master cabin but for heat and sound rather than the cold where we intend to sail.