Another Broken Lagoon

[capnsensible]

Of course. But an utter numpty on a modern Dazcat or something similar could beat your old Prout without even knowing there was a race. Times change, ideas mature. The brothers Prout were valiant pioneers, I salute them. However, Roland knew the limitations of his own designs, he owned a Dragonfly 800. I know this because I bought it from his estate. I now have a 920

Can you live on yours for a few years at a time?

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Can you live on yours for a few years at a time?

No. Nor do I wish to. But I could if I bought a Dazcat. Which would rip the p*** out of a prout before breakfast. And be lighter, stiffer, probably longer lasting, better at sea, and have greater range. Call it evolution, Darren would be the first to say it like Newton. Standing on the shoulders of giants.

 

[capnsensible]

No. Nor do I wish to. But I could if I bought a Dazcat. Which would rip the p*** out of a prout before breakfast. And be lighter, stiffer, probably longer lasting, better at sea, and have greater range. Call it evolution, Darren would be the first to say it like Newton. Standing on the shoulders of giants.

People buy boats they can afford. Not dream boats to enter a peeing contest....

 

[Chiara’s slave]

People buy boats they can afford. Not dream boats to enter a peeing contest....

True. But you’d have a job to buy a prout with any life in it. I certainly wouldnt cross an ocean in a 40 year old banger. Either not go, or buy a boat thats good enough.

 

[capnsensible]

True. But you’d have a job to buy a prout with any life in it. I certainly wouldnt cross an ocean in a 40 year old banger. Either not go, or buy a boat thats good enough.

So you've never sailed one then. I see.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

So you've never sailed one then. I see.

Prout, no. Seen a fair few at sea, and am fully capable of assessing the design, the sail area and speed potential. Dazcat, yes, many times. If I wanted a serious offshore boat, that would be it.

 

[BurnitBlue]

The Prout
The Prout 31 Quest was a fairly poor performing catamaran. Their ability to go to windward with their blunt bows was not great. I know this having sailed in company with a friends 31. She made a very poor tacking angle.
Being smaller than a Snowgoose 37 there panel sizes were smaller so they were probably less flexible. However, a cored construction using the same overall thickness of glass would be 37 times stiffer than solid GRP.
Did you sail her across the Atlantic? I can't image what that would be like. Very hard to carry enough provisions without grossly overloading it.
There was no structural issue with my Prout. No cracks, no bulkhead issues but even though we kept it light she was not a stiff hull. Can you imagine how much she would stress the hull if she was heavily loaded. She would go through waves instead of over them. There would be more bridge deck slamming.

Yes to all that. Bad tacking, slow, no weight carrying at all. But it was what I had , so i excused her drawbacks because as Nortada calls "leaving blood gives you permission to be a critic." Two years of sawing wood makes for a lot of chisel nicks. 31 foot is far to small for safety. I was ex military. We are quite used to spending months at sea, or in the desert or jungle with just a packet of biscuits and a Mars bar in the backpack. Of course these days a soldier, sailor, or airman has half the army following on behind with kitchens pots and pans, big tents with beds with clean sheets.

My first sail down to the Canaries was a piece of cake stocking up in harbours. But three days out from the Canaries I ran out of food. I didn't panic, i was sure there was food stashed somewhere. A dozen years where all of that housework stuff was always someone elses responibility. I collected water in the dinghy on the foredeck. 29 days later i arrived in Barbados and I could not walk because i was weak. Flying fish and three pats of butter I found in the bilge (cool) kept me going anything remotely eddible. I even ate the toothpaste. I checked in holding my pants up.

The next time, i planned it better and actually enjoyed it. Had a wife then which helped. Lack of storage space did not apply the first time. When we sold the boat in Miami I moved to Sweden and bought a folkboat. It was amazing to find that she went wherever I pointed her. Fantastic. Took off again to the Med for a few years. Ended up with the Moody 34 I have now. So it surprises me that with the luxery of a Snowgoose 37, you hankered for more space. Some people are never satisfied. I still have the folkboat in my Swedish garden.

 

[capnsensible]

Prout, no. Seen a fair few at sea, and am fully capable of assessing the design, the sail area and speed potential. Dazcat, yes, many times. If I wanted a serious offshore boat, that would be it.

Well having sailed several varieties over several thousand miles, I wouldn't begrudge someone owning a boat they can afford....

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Well having sailed several varieties over several thousand miles, I wouldn't begrudge someone owning a boat they can afford....

We’re on just over 2000 miles on the 920, but she’s spent 3 months of our 1st year ashore being sorted. All short range stuff though, lots of mooring, un-mooring, tidal navigation and sail handling, barely tried the autopilot. We’ll go further soon, we hope.

 

[geem]

Yes to all that. Bad tacking, slow, no weight carrying at all. But it was what I had , so i excused her drawbacks because as Nortada calls "leaving blood gives you permission to be a critic." Two years of sawing wood makes for a lot of chisel nicks. 31 foot is far to small for safety. I was ex military. We are quite used to spending months at sea, or in the desert or jungle with just a packet of biscuits and a Mars bar in the backpack. Of course these days a soldier, sailor, or airman has half the army following on behind with kitchens pots and pans, big tents with beds with clean sheets.

My first sail down to the Canaries was a piece of cake stocking up in harbours. But three days out from the Canaries I ran out of food. A dozen years where all of that housework stuff was always someone elses responibility. I collected water in the dinghy on the foredeck. 29 days later i arrived in Barbados and I could not walk because i was weak. Flying fish and three pats of butter I found in the bilge (cool) kept me going anything remotely eddible. I even ate the toothpaste. I checked in holding my pants up.

The next time, i planned it better and actually enjoyed it. Had a wife then which helped. Lack of storage space did not apply the first time. When we sold the boat in Miami I moved to Sweden and bought a folkboat. It was amazing to find that she went wherever I pointed her. Fantastic. Took off again to the Med for a few years. Ended up with the Moody 34 I have now. So it surprises me that with the luxery of a Snowgoose 37, you hankered for more space. Some people are never satisfied. I still have the folkboat in my Swedish garden.

It wasn't really space that was the issue. It was load carrying capacity.
If we carried onboard the Prout what we now carry with ease and also well above the boats production marks, we would probably destroy the Prout.
We have two sewing machines, two folding Bromptons, two full sets of dive gear, six kitesurfing kites, two kite surfing boards, two paddleboards, a 3.8m hard nesting dinghy, a 15hp outboard engine, sailing rig for the nesting dinghy, huge toolkit, huge spares kit, 15 power tools, JSD, etc
Can you imagine that lot on a small cat?
We had a tiny 5 litres per hour watermaker that we ran for 5 hrs every day. It leaked like a sieve and was always needing work. We now have a 200 litre per hour unit I built 10 years ago. We have made 7500 litres since February.
It really is a different world?

 

[goeasy123]

A new Lagoon owner placed a warranty claim stating that the toilet was overflowing into the bathroom. After some 'unpleasantness' Lagoon inform him that the boat was overloaded putting the rim of the bowl below the waterline.

... you gotta laugh!!

 

[geem]

Wandering around the boatyard here in Curacao, there are two HH55 cats. They have daggerboards and deep spindly spade rudders. The lowest point on the bottom of the hull is those rudders. Stood next to it, the draft is 6ft. What was the designer thinking? They are incredibly vulnerable.
On one of them, both saildrives are stripped down as well. These are not old boats. The back of one of the carbon daggerboards is badly damaged. Can only think that it's own mooring chain wrapped around it. It has a wound about 6 inch deep.
There is also a Hylas 46 in the yard. The guy who owns it tells me the yard started lifting it and there was a crack. A gap opened up at the back of the cast iron keel. He has owned it for 14 years and admits to bumping the bottom gently a few times in the Bahamas. They are now going to drop the keep to check everything.