Further to my post Contessar 32 doppelganger.

[Chiara’s slave]

Borge Qorning was well down the performance tri route when the Prout bros were at the height of their boat building, for sure. But as you say, a Prout is a home with sails, a dragonfly is more like a hot rod camper van My wife is delighted to have a door on the heads, it’s a first for us. We don’t do 3 month cruises.

 

[BurnitBlue]

... this one?

Yes. That photo was part of the 24 photos in the Apollo Duck advert.

 

[BurnitBlue]

Little to do with age. There were fast multihulls around when the Prout was being designed and built. Sailing performance was low on the priority list. Volume for a given hull length was top priority. Sails were just a means to an end which was transporting people and their gear comfortably without heeling over. It sort of succeeded (although uncomfortable heeling was replaced in part by uncomfortable pitching!) but in reality was no faster on passage than monohulls of similar capacity. Any saving in cost arising from reduced length for given capacity was soon wiped out by increased operating costs, particularly berthing.

End result is they only sold in very small numbers. As soon as potential buyers put all the factors into their calculations they found better value elsewhere.

Of course for current used boat buyers there are big benefits - few people are interested in old. slow cats like the Prout so prices are low compared with what they cost when new.

So, for the OP who knows what he is getting a potentially good buy (don't know what he paid). and hope it lives up to expectations.

The price was advertised at £25,000 which I Paid. I agree that a cruising cat at any moment will not outpace a monohull especially to windward. It depends on wind and sea state. In light air choppy conditions "pitching or Hobby Horsing" can sometimes stop a cat dead in her tracks without the weight to punch through. The wind and sea states are so variable that actuall average speeds are superior in the Cat. From just forward of the beam to all the way aft is more than half the wind compass so statistically cats must be faster.

I owned a small Prout Quest 31 for six years where I cruised both sides of the Atlantic. A cat revels in the Caribbean while the Bahamas are sheer paradise. Very few marinas for such a massive cruising ground so anchoring is free although I hear mooring balls are springing up everywhere. The dreaded curse of the "middle man". I still have the Moody 34 in the adjoining boatyard. Med mooring costs mean that one of them is destined for the Caribbean if I can ever escape Greece.

 

[BurnitBlue]

To the OP
Well done
You made the first steps and the rest fell into place.

think you’ve made a great pragmatic choice .
Now enjoy learning the new boat

Well said it could be argued that the first step was discussing a change to a Contessa. The important step though was to stop thinking about it and "hit the road".

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Well said it could be argued that the first step was discussing a change to a Contessa. The important step though was to stop thinking about it and "hit the road".

Our esteemed member @Wansworth should take note! Though of course some people prefer talking, or restoring boats to actually sailing. I’m definitely like you, just go sailing. Virtually any boat will do.

 

[doug748]

The performance of my boat is widely known. I have no need to make it up.

Well, correct or not, you are in a noble Forum tradition. I always like to check actual results.

The performance of my boat is an aside, just a measuring stick. In light airs, you against a Contessa, I’d bet on you.

I like Twisters good, fast, capable boats, nearly bought one myself, however lets ground ourselves in facts. If we look at the 2016 Round the Island results book (a fair pick, the race was neither too light or too windy for novice crews not to fly downwind sails) :

http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/web/pubs/resultsbooks/RIR2017Results.pdf

We see the first Contessa 32 home was: 8h 9min with another 7 finishing under 9 hours

The first Twister I can pick out was: 9h 20 minutes, with others later.

In terms of other bigger boats we know that Pierre-André Huglo set off in his Contessa in pursuit of the last GG Race, started a month later, from 100 miles further up Channel and overtook the whole fleet bar 2.



We all love a good overtaking anecdote but established performance is better when it comes to making a choice.
The moral of this post must be that it is useful to know exactly what your requirements at the outset or you could end up making a costly mistake.
I have spent some happy times on multihulls and in hot climates at anchor there is little to beat them for comfort. So best of luck to the OP; my theory is that any boat that suits you best can never be beaten.

.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Well, correct or not, you are in a noble Forum tradition. I always like to check actual results.



I like Twisters good, fast, capable boats, nearly bought one myself, however lets ground ourselves in facts. If we look at the 2016 Round the Island results book (a fair pick, the race was neither too light or too windy for novice crews not to fly downwind sails) :

http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/web/pubs/resultsbooks/RIR2017Results.pdf

We see the first Contessa 32 home was: 8h 9min with another 7 finishing under 9 hours

The first Twister I can pick out was: 9h 20 minutes, with others later.

In terms of other bigger boats we know that Pierre-André Huglo set off in his Contessa in pursuit of the last GG Race, started a month later, from 100 miles further up Channel and overtook the whole fleet bar 2.



We all love a good overtaking anecdote but established performance is better when it comes to making a choice.
The moral of this post must be that it is useful to know exactly what your requirements at the outset or you could end up making a costly mistake.
I have spent some happy times on multihulls and in hot climates at anchor there is little to beat them for comfort. So best of luck to the OP; my theory is that any boat that suits you best can never be beaten.

.

I Hope you realize my comment was made in jest vs a dragonfly tri!
However, your use of the RTIR times is I think an excellent way to compare boats, I have a spreadsheet of all the times for about 10 years so it shows all boats in all conditions. It doesn’t of course differentiate between racing crews and cruisers.
Folkboats are about as fast as contessa 32s but Twisters are definitely slower by something like 10%

 

[Chiara’s slave]

The first Dragonfly 920 finished in 6 hours 50 I see. That was Wandering Glider.

 

[BurnitBlue]

Our esteemed member @Wansworth should take note! Though of course some people prefer talking, or restoring boats to actually sailing. I’m definitely like you, just go sailing. Virtually any boat will do.

Wildlings sailing also "hit the road". Sleeping and cooking in his car as he drove from site to site. He arrived in the Netherlands where he found a
42 foot Wharram for £2,000. He doesn't seem to have realised ir yet but in my opinion he is in a right pickle. In a nutshell, the cat has no deck, the trans beams are loose, two old outboards, the boat is in an illegal part of the river, marinas will not touch the boat. BUT he is happy and has found a boaryard to haul the boat. I follow his vlog because he has a unique method of solving problems. Much like Mr Macauber. I really wish him well, staunch man. I personally would have donned my twelve league boots and strode off into the desert and kiss my £2,000 goodbye. So maybe Wansworth is not wrong to keep on waiting for the right boat.

 

[doug748]

The first Dragonfly 920 finished in 6 hours 50 I see. That was Wandering Glider.

Bit odd to be crowing about overtaking a 50 year old keelboat then?

.