Follow up regarding cruising cats...

[sv_makai]

We cruise a 38 Voyage Yacht and find that normally we get 6-9 knots on a passage. Your boat's capabilty and the load will definately impact your ability. We have cruised with some prouts and dean cats of the style you are looking for and the generally sail more at mono hull speeds when loaded.

Even though we generally see faster transit speeds we always route plan at 5 knots and 8 knots to ensure our arrival time. If we have the speed we will blast our way there and then reef to slow us down until sunrise.

The reason we plan a lower end is we have traveled aginst the winds and current. Traveling from Los Tesitgos to Trinidad we were moving 7 athrough the water. The head current was 4 knots and the fact we had to sail off the rhumb line reduced our veleocity made good. We covered the 120 miles right on 5 knots average (though the trip actual cover 140 miles with tacking).

[henryv]

There is a cat - mono discussion running on the latsandatts.net discussion board at the moment as well if you want a few more opinions.

[Sunspot Baby]

We have owned a 1994 Prout 38 Manta, South African built, since 2001 and have cruised her in the Bahamas the last 2 winters.

Our beam is 18’ 5” and spend a lot of time at side ties. Our home marina has 4 catamaran slips, one of which we rent through the summer and early fall.

We have a little trouble finding a travel lift wide enough, but in the Bahamas there seem to be a lot of railroad lifts that are almost free of any beam restriction.

Another side benefit of the cat is that if you are remote and need to beach her on the tide (careen) for work, she is stable and level. With a mono you have to tie to some sort of support to keep her upright.

We really wanted a 39 Escale but the right boat at the right price ended up being the Manta. The boat layout is so nearly identical that it is no issue of interior space between them.

We have two Volvo 28hp with sail drives.

I could not recommend the Prout any more highly. She isn’t particularly fast but very comfortable, stable, and extremely sturdy.

I paid in the mid 170’s in 2001.

If you can find a similar deal, go for it.

A boat that was built for the US market will make life a little easier. We converted our 220 50 Hz generator to 110 60 cycle at some cost.

There are lots of good cats but a used Prout is an excellent choice.

Pictures are available at www.stateham.com/sunspotbaby

Good luck on you search. May you find a boat that makes you as happy as ours has us.

Sunspot Baby