French cats

[steveh]

I have noticed on other posts that there is a general dislike of the French styled catamarans.
I was just wondering what the reasons for this may be. Is it just aesthetics or a question of
Seaworthiness ?. Agreed many of them have high topsides but this shouldn’t be a problem -
just look at the design of modern RNLI boats. With modern computer design they should be more
seaworthy than their predecessors or is this just wishful thinking?


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[sailbadthesinner]

For chartering i love them
would not one full time tho.

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[snowleopard]

the desire for 'chic' in french cats results in some strange things like triangular work surfaces with no fiddles. some of the exteriors are amazingly ugly.

british buyers seem to rate boats on the amount of wood on display and regard bare glassfibre as cheap & nasty so prouts were the top sellers over here even though they mostly sail like barges.



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[Guest]

Form follows function as they say. The requirement for standing headroom in the bridgedeck/saloon and in the hulls imposes many constraints, however the stability of the platform, the room and facilities are hard to beat. Twin engines in each hull means you an spin them on a sixpence.

Seaworthiness: Unless fitted with daggerboards like an Outremer or Cantana not quite as good as a mono to windward, however with daggerboards they are capable of some stunnig performance figs: The first place multi in the 2002 Round Britain race on handicap was an Outremer which achieved 254miles in one day.

Bear in mind to that the Morrings Leopard 4000's were biult in South Africa and reached their bases in the Caribbean and Med by sailing there!

Other than the Lagoons and Fontaine Pajots which can look boxy there are some really cool cats in France and elsewhere in the world

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[timevans2000]

Re: Prouts

As an owner of a Snowgoose 37 I have to dispute your statement. Mine is a pre Elite model with an extra tall rig. This gives me 15% extra sail area. I have a Mylar genoa and fully battened main. I keep her reasonably light and she performs very well.

We did one uneventful passage last year from Pwllheli to East Ferry, Cork that had F4 wind just ahead of the beam most of the way. We did this sail of some 190 miles in 24 hours. We we not racing. I was sailing with my wife only. We reefed down at night just to make things a little more comfy while one of us was asleep.

I have sailed in company on reasonable length passages 10/15 miles, with a well sailed beneteau 361 and regardless of whether we were beating or not we were always quicker to our destination

My boat is 22 years old and still performs very well.

I agree that the Quest is a motorsailor. It will not sail to windward, but she is a very seaworthy boat. A delivery skipper I know who was caught out in a big blow had nothing but praise for them.( he owns a Snowgoose 37)

I have had no experience of the Elite models, but have been told they dont sail as well as the pre elite models, though they will carry more load.

Why do you feel you need to slag of a boat that is no longer made and was conceived in the 1960s. And if your boat is so good why are there so few of them yet so many Prouts?

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[snowleopard]

Re: Prouts

nothing wrong with prouts. the standard of trim is what most british buyers expect in a 'quality' boat.

french buyers are less keen on woodwork, resulting in a lighter build.

you pays your money & takes your choice.

none of the volume cat builders produce performance boats, that end of the market is occupied by the likes of dazcats. to get up to the next level of performance requires hi-tech construction and correspondingly higher cost.

when i say 'performance', i'm talking about boats which are around 50% faster than monohulls of comparable size. prouts never pretended to be in that bracket. saying that is not 'slagging them off'.

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[Birdseye]

dont think the comments apply to french cats so much as to most modern design cats. problem is the requirement for full standing headroom added to the desire to maximise under bridge deck clearance. add the two together and you get very high topsides which look out of place on anything below about 45 ft overall. plus they make manoeuvering in harbour crosswinds difficult even with twin engines. and they increase leeway. and you end up with excessive headroom in the hulls. plus, the high minimum size (about 37ft) means that the accomodation is excessive for all but the french extended family, and they are an embarrassment in conjested marinas.

the last prouts built before they went under were to this modern style and were just as ugly as the french equivalent.

conversely, as someone has said, the old prout interior style together with heavy construction meant performance was not up to outremer standards, but still a little better (i reckon about 15% on average, all points of sail) than all but cruiser racer monos of the same length. all the prouts sailed less well as the designs grew older and were extended and heavier

i own an older prout. it sails well in all conditions except a chop to windward, is comfortable in harbour and its size does not cause problems. i would not consider a modern wide beamed high topside cat for all the reasons above. if i were changing, i would go back to a mono but one of the lighter flyers rather than a heavy old tub.

and the comment above about snowgoose performance compared to quest is simply nonsense. i've sailed both, and the snowgoose (particularly in elite form ) is not a great sailer. confirmed incidentally, by members of the prout family that i met, who reckoned that the quest 31 was the best of the bunch as a sailing boat.

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