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danielgoldberg · 02-06-2008, 16:34

There is a new company building them, and I agree that I don't know if the connection is anything more than the name, though they do claim to be connected. The site is proutcats.com. It looks like an interesting boat, and they plan to be at the upcoming shows in force.

NC, here's our profile in terms of how we sail. Primarily we are coastal cruisers. Me, my wife and our two young boys (5 and 3 1/2). We sail mostly on Long Island Sound, with annual treks to Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Block Island, etc. We take guests also, but more often we meet up with other friends on their boats and we end up rafting together in a variety of local harbors. Oddly enough, we don't really daysail that much, and much more often go away for a night or two at a time. In the summer we spend virtually every weekend on the boat, and about 3 to 4 weeks in total cruising to the places mentioned above. We usually end up with a few overnight passages each year, some years more some less. We also will be sailing to Bermuda every now and again (in fact I'm leaving in less than two weeks on our current boat). Lastly, we have designs on taking a little time and sliding south, doing the east coast and Bahamas thing for a year, but that's a few years out. For a variety of reasons, we're looking to make the move now to the boat we'd be taking on that sojourn. My wife really wants to buy new, but that decision is not yet final. Obviously it would be great to have a new boat, but the price tags are somewhat daunting. If the true cost differential (and I mean true, after doing all upgrades, retrofitting with the gear we want, etc.) is not overly great, we would likely go the new route, particularly if the dealer in question were to take our boat in trade; it would just save the hassle of trying to sell our current boat. We've refit several boats, and it's amazing how much it's like a house, at least for us; you get everything just the way you want it, and then sell it, buy something else, and start all over. It would be nice to be done with that.

Now I'm in the process of comparing and contrasting boats, and trying to get an apples to apples comparison on cost, at least for new boats. That's not as easy as I expected. Obviously the options are somewhat different, but different brands use different equipment, some have larger battery banks, larger gensets, smaller engines, etc. You need to be a CPA to work through the standard, options and price lists to get a fair comparison. I'll tell you, I'm not sure if it's the boat for us, but the way Manta does it with a one-price, fully complete package, is a very nice way to handle the situation.

So, that's us. Any thoughts and/or recommendations would be most welcome.

02-06-2008, 16:34	#5
danielgoldberg Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 6	There is a new company building them, and I agree that I don't know if the connection is anything more than the name, though they do claim to be connected. The site is proutcats.com. It looks like an interesting boat, and they plan to be at the upcoming shows in force. NC, here's our profile in terms of how we sail. Primarily we are coastal cruisers. Me, my wife and our two young boys (5 and 3 1/2). We sail mostly on Long Island Sound, with annual treks to Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Block Island, etc. We take guests also, but more often we meet up with other friends on their boats and we end up rafting together in a variety of local harbors. Oddly enough, we don't really daysail that much, and much more often go away for a night or two at a time. In the summer we spend virtually every weekend on the boat, and about 3 to 4 weeks in total cruising to the places mentioned above. We usually end up with a few overnight passages each year, some years more some less. We also will be sailing to Bermuda every now and again (in fact I'm leaving in less than two weeks on our current boat). Lastly, we have designs on taking a little time and sliding south, doing the east coast and Bahamas thing for a year, but that's a few years out. For a variety of reasons, we're looking to make the move now to the boat we'd be taking on that sojourn. My wife really wants to buy new, but that decision is not yet final. Obviously it would be great to have a new boat, but the price tags are somewhat daunting. If the true cost differential (and I mean true, after doing all upgrades, retrofitting with the gear we want, etc.) is not overly great, we would likely go the new route, particularly if the dealer in question were to take our boat in trade; it would just save the hassle of trying to sell our current boat. We've refit several boats, and it's amazing how much it's like a house, at least for us; you get everything just the way you want it, and then sell it, buy something else, and start all over. It would be nice to be done with that. Now I'm in the process of comparing and contrasting boats, and trying to get an apples to apples comparison on cost, at least for new boats. That's not as easy as I expected. Obviously the options are somewhat different, but different brands use different equipment, some have larger battery banks, larger gensets, smaller engines, etc. You need to be a CPA to work through the standard, options and price lists to get a fair comparison. I'll tell you, I'm not sure if it's the boat for us, but the way Manta does it with a one-price, fully complete package, is a very nice way to handle the situation. So, that's us. Any thoughts and/or recommendations would be most welcome.