Considering a Cat

[SiteSurfer]

Possibly because scopolamine is the name in the USA of the drug known this side of the Atlantic as hyoscine, a common constituent of travel sickness remedies, e.g. Kwells.

Ah! Thank you, I will pass this on to my daughter.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Ah! Thank you, I will pass this on to my daughter.

She might wish to try a natural remedy that will not make her drowsy.
A well-known substitute for such medications is 'Crystallised Ginger' and you will probably find it in most supermarkets. It is used to treat problems of motion sickness and nausea, even after chemotherapy, which as you might know, frequently causes severe nausea. Chuck a piece into the mouth and chew. You can also prepare your own if you wish and it is very easy to do in your home kitchen. This is what it looks like:

(look for a recipe on Google)

p.s. Here's one:
https://www.daringgourmet.com/how-to-make-crystallized-ginger/

 

[SiteSurfer]

That will come with us on the next trip, I think we are at the stage that we'll give anything a go!

 

[geem]

That will come with us on the next trip, I think we are at the stage that we'll give anything a go!

I once heard that Chinese merchant seaman in the past would chew raw ginger root for three weeks before going to sea. This cured the seasickness. With this in mind we make homemade ginger ale. We drink it onboard as we are liveaboards all the time. It seems to help with my wife's seasickness but I think you need to build it up your system. Taking as you go sailing won't work. We drink a litre a day each just as refreshing drink or with a shot of rum in the evening!

 

[SiteSurfer]

Off to look at Summer Twins, Heavenly Twins and a Prout Quest 31 this weekend.
Hoping for twin inboards ideally, although the outboard does seem to have quite a lot going for it.

Curious, can you vector the outboards on these or are they fixed?
I suppose outboard plus bow thruster would be a neat solution.

 

[Mikedefieslife]

I have come across a Twins 27 with single diesel but with some kind of hydraulic linkage to props in either hull. I have also come across a twins with central outboard and with a bow thruster. In the Prout group, there is someone who fitted a bow thruster last year. Their reports back are that it was well worth the money and they should have done it sooner.

 

[geem]

I have come across a Twins 27 with single diesel but with some kind of hydraulic linkage to props in either hull. I have also come across a twins with central outboard and with a bow thruster. In the Prout group, there is someone who fitted a bow thruster last year. Their reports back are that it was well worth the money and they should have done it sooner.

We had a Prout Snowgoose 37 for 11 years. Once you get used to the swivelling drive leg there is little need for a bow thruster. I could spin it in its own length with the single engine. It took a little practise but I never saw the need for two engines or would have wanted the added weight.

 

[SiteSurfer]

I was lucky enough to have a brief chat with a couple with a Snowgoose in Ryde a couple weeks ago, the topic being the Sillette Drive. It seems an interesting bit of kit - although I think not fit to any of the boats that I am contemplating.

I have looked at images of the outboards fitted to these and it doesn't appear there's much room for manoeuvre within the space allocated to them. Read a lot about the hydraulic drives being quite inefficient and noisy too.
Whilst in cloud cuckoo land - the sideshift pontoon boat idea is fun, although a bit ugly (and could be replicated with a homegrown cobbled up idea I reckon!).

 

[fredrussell]

I haven’t read the whole thread so this may be irrelevant or already stated but my friend, an accomplished sailor, took a Heavenly twins 26 around the UK and stated afterwards that it was a motor sailer. Going to windward under sail alone was not a rewarding experience.

 

[geem]

I haven’t read the whole thread so this may be irrelevant or already stated but my friend, an accomplished sailor, took a Heavenly twins 26 around the UK and stated afterwards that it was a motor sailer. Going to windward under sail alone was not a rewarding experience.

There are few of the old design small cats that go to Windward. The Heavenly Twins was also known as the Heave-enly twins for its ability to make you sick! They pitch like crazy in any sea going to Windward.
By comparison, we owned a Prout Snowgoose 37 (pre-Elite). We had a 45ft mast (8 ft taller than standard). With good sails we out pointed all of the twin keel monohull in our sailing club and sailed faster. As I have said earlier in this thread, we kept it light. If you want performance in any small cat first you need a good hull then you need to keep it light. There is nothing more important on a cat even though they have space to carry more gear than an equivalent monohull.
The Pre Elite Snowgoose had narrow hulls. Look at the bows on the Snowgoose 37 and compare with any other Prout. They are far finer entry and a far better sailing boat then anything they made in equivalent size or smaller.
We sailed ours across the pond. The return leg was hard on the wind for 1000nm. Not a pleasant trip as we slammed the whole way and snapped the baby stay. We now have a monohull......

 

[SiteSurfer]

In a slight deviation to what I thought was a set path, the wife has just looked at a Westerly Storm on tinterwebs which produced an interesting conversation, I think the next month will be an interesting jaunt around boats by the look of it.

 

[SiteSurfer]

Back on track with cat questions, going to look at a couple of Summer Twins and Prout 31 this weekend, however - looking at saildata and photos of both I see that the Summer Twins is 25ft long x 16ft 4" wide whilst the Prout Q31 is 31ft long and 14ft wide, in real terms the extra width makes the Summer Twins significantly wider than the Heavenly Twins (27ft x 13ft 9").

I appreciate that hull length is important with hobby horsing (I think) but what does extra beam to - aside from increasing the usable area? Certainly, the interior layout on the Summer Twins is almost perfect for us, there's a twin-engined option and (gulp) I almost like the styling. However, its almost 5ft shorter than my monohull but almost twice as wide, and I've seen videos of this little cat doing close on 12 knots (with the right winds) too whereas my mono tops out at about 4 knots on a good day.

Is 16ft 4" too wide for single berths and boat lifts or am I overthinking it? The more I look at the Summer Twins the more it atracts me, however the allure of the longer Quest 31 keeps beckoning. I'll know more about how the family think on Monday - but they all do seem to like the Summer Twins - I just don't want to go backwards in terms of the available room and comfort.

Should I consider trying to add more to our small budget and go for a Quest 33? The price hike between them is quite large.

I'm avoiding the obvious 'stay with a mono' at the moment.

 

[stephen_h]

Most marina cat berths are hammerheads or alongside so beam is not a problem. There are less places that can lift cats
but they are around so shouldn't be a deal breaker. Also don't forget you will get charged by the length so the 33 will
cost quite a bit more in a marina.
I think you will be amazed at the space on a Summer Twins

 

[SiteSurfer]

Just to put this thread to bed, after a busy weekend with some personal issues thrown in - the wife and I have decided to stick with a monohull for the next 10 years, what we do after that is anyones guess.

We would like to thank everyone for their valued input, we went all the way as far as physically looking but her decision is final, having had a serious budget chat we are off to look at some mono's this weekend with a view to getting something in the 33-37 ft range.

Many thanks for the comments, no matter how small - we feel that it was a worthwhile avenue to explore.

I may have to start (another) what 36ft cruiser thread....

 

[fergie_mac66]

It might be more a constructive end to post the reasons .

 

[SiteSurfer]

My apologies you are of course correct.

1) Budget and time. With personal circumstances changing I have less time to spend fettling than I'd like and so we needed to have something in the size we wanted - in the state of readiness that we needed, even if I was willing - it was possible that my own enthusiasm would run out leaving us without anything to sail and enjoy.

Our budget wouldn't run to meet both criteria.

2) The reasons for buying. Personal circumstances dictated that we may have been guilty of attempting to please everyone rather ourselves, we looked very hard at why we wanted to change and came to the conclusion that we were trying to satisfy an an edge case more than our normal usage.

3) My wife loved the space, I thought it was great too. But in a very odd turn of events she actually realised that she liked the sailing bit as much as I did, just didn't really want to haul ropes - and again, the reasons for change had been so blurred that neither of us saw it until this weekend.

4) The family. In 3 years time neither of the girls will be at home. We realised we were trying to buy a boat for a family, not a couple who actually enjoy each other's company sailing.

5) and perhaps the clincher - the wife prefers the styling of the monos that we can afford over the cats that we can afford.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

It seems that you have followed the path of objective and rational reasoning. No harm in that and well done for managing to keep your feet on the ground. Please excuse the unintentional pun!

 

[Airscrew]

Given that this is, in part, a seasickness question, my better half uses Sea Bands, available Boots and many other places for under a tenner.

For her, they work brilliantly, and every time, including the couple of F7/8 squalls we had in the Solent last weekend....

Certainly worth a try before changing boats..

 

[SiteSurfer]

Given that this is, in part, a seasickness question, my better half uses Sea Bands, available Boots and many other places for under a tenner.

For her, they work brilliantly, and every time, including the couple of F7/8 squalls we had in the Solent last weekend....

Certainly worth a try before changing boats..

Yep she has those, they dutifully go on every time. She's quite game to try most things and they appear to help her.