Heavenly Twins

[Jeannius]

I've only heard of the 26 and 27. I'll google the others. Ta

There was a 34 range which I think was called Star Twins. First cat I ever sailed and was most impressed. That was a very long time ago but I saw one a year or two back in Bequia so they are still out there.

 

[mikemacdonald]

HT/Prout

We have had both, Doneta, a Mk3 HT for 10 yrs, ideal with 2 young daughters, safe centre cockpit, aft cabins keeps the peace and a decent saloon and heads. Ok, its an old design, not good to windward and prone to slamming when beating, absolutely fine with the wind aft the beam, very seaworthy, we came through a F7/8 gale in the channel and got hit by a 55 kn gust on the beam,, I thought we had had it but she just slipped sideways down the wave, and on we went, fastest crossing we had ever done!! Ther were tears when we sold her, but we just outgrew her.
We now have a Prout Snowgoose, 1984 and all the room we need, course the family don't sail with us very often but to us this is home from home. She sails as well as we need, not bad to windward for a cat, best speed about 6-7 knots in about 14 kn of wind, get 20kn of wind, 1 reef in the main and reefed genoa and we clock 8-9 knots easily. We try not to overlaod her. Inboard diesel with steering leg makes manoeuvering quite handy, and 1m draft means we can go where others can't, and don,t pay!!!
In my opinion they are both good older design cats, extremely safe and seaworthy, won't break any records but their record of transatlantics and world voyages speak for themselves.
I would say that you would be lucky to get a Snowgoose for 40/50k, what about a Prout Quest 33, excellent boat and arguably one of the best sailors in the lower Prout range.
Good luck in your hunt, Multihull World at Emsworth are good people to deal with, we have got both our boats from there( no connection).
Mike.

 

[Garold]

Yes, we're off to the multihull centre at the weekend.

Funny you should mention the Gemini; that's the first cat we looked at and what we really fancy but have never seen anything within budget (which will be about £40-50k)

Edit;

I've just had a look at multihull centre's website (they are the one's in Emsworth?) A second hand Gemini will set you back about £80-120k That's more than they were new when we first looked about 5 years ago! Somewhat over priced and out of our price range anyway.

Have you looked a bit further afield than Emsworth?

I think that only the later ones came to the UK. You may find an older one overseas.

I've just looked at Yachtworld and they start at about £40k. But you have to travel.

Cheers

Garold

 

[Colvic Watson]

Some Gemini owners complain of the poor durability of the mouldings, easily chipped and crazed, but a great design and the best sailing for a mid sized cruising cat. Prouts have their issues but hold their value extremely well. Personally we wrote off any design with the main sleeping cabin separated from the saloon by a curtain so lots of Prouts failed that test, but it works well for other people. Don't discount the sailing ability of the HT, just don't sail to windward. One thing we noticed was the wonderful acceleration in gusts, she only displaced 3 tons and was 13 feet wide and 27 feet long so the power to weight ration was excellent. The final nail in the coffin for us was a long trip back from Belgium to Harwich, we tried it three days in a row but with a headwind and sea we just gave up. Then we counted the hours we'd spent under engine and reckoned we may as well have a motor boat for mid distance cruising. Having said all that, the best memories we have of sailing are all on the HT, when the wind was right the boat was perfect. One long sail from Harwich to Nieuwpoort we skipped along at 5.5 knots on a beam reach, healing about 5 degrees, everyone from the 3 year old upwards moving about the boat without problem, or sneaking of for a sleep in one of the cabins, a cat really does make a fantastic family yacht.

 

[Cymrogwyllt]

*resists the urge to say I'd like to meet them*

 

[Slow_boat]

I shalln't be going to look at cats this weekend; multihull world aren't open on Sundays, the only day we can both make it, which seems a bit bizzare to me, and I'm not driving 120 miles to wander around a pontoon looking at the outsides!

 

[Colvic Watson]

I agree, I always thought it strange when we were hunting for a cat.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

How much are you thinking is the top of your budget?
There must be a better way than a cat surely.. .

 

[Bosun Higgs]

I had a Prout 33 which was chosen after sailing an HT 27 and realising how badly it did sail. But even the Prout was a motorsailer to windward in a chop - it would point OK in flat water but any sort of waves would stop it dead unless you sailed free. The result was that in two years of longer term sailing round Spain, we had the engine going 70% of the time we were at sea. The HT would have been far worse and dont even think of a Catalac

Both Prout and HT are brilliant floating caravans with better accommodation than any similar sized mono and more comnfortable at anchor. Trouble is they sail, like caravans too. But then I suspect thats an issue with all cruising cats since the current French ones have humuingous windage.

 

[Colvic Watson]

I had a Prout 33 which was chosen after sailing an HT 27 and realising how badly it did sail. But even the Prout was a motorsailer to windward in a chop - it would point OK in flat water but any sort of waves would stop it dead unless you sailed free. The result was that in two years of longer term sailing round Spain, we had the engine going 70%

Pretty much our figure for the HT on passages, about 30% on coastal cruising.

 

[Slow_boat]

How much are you thinking is the top of your budget?
There must be a better way than a cat surely.. .

Top end is about £50k.

The attractions of a cat are that they are a floating caravan with plenty of accomodation. There is no way we could afford that in a mono. Plus swmbo has arthritis which is only going to get worse, so a steep companionway ladder could be a problem in future. We chartered a big prout a few years ago and loved it. We intend to go through the canals then day sails from anchorage to anchorage, and a cat is more comfortable at anchor. We're going to be water-born tourists, not man against the elements. If the winds in the wrong direction, we'll wait!

The biggest downside I can see is the increased marina charges, but we only intend to do a marina once a week. Leaving her for any length of time could be expensive, which is why we're wondering about a small cat.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Hi Slow boat
I can now more understand your thinking. My knees have just begun to really play up and I generally struggle on the wrong day to go up and down those steps.
Patience is certainly going to pay off unless you intend to motor a great deal, but as you have experience in cats then I'm sure that's all been considered.
Best of luck
S.

 

[mikemacdonald]

HT/Prout

Have been thinking, what about a Prout 31, bit older but same layout as the larger Prouts and a decent one should be around 25/30K, same sailing characteristics but probably easier in the canals and with a decent inboard and sonic leg, handier than outboards.
And of course, gentlemen don't sail to windward
Mike

 

[mikemacdonald]

HT/Prout

PS, a Prout 31 will fit in the Brittany canal, anything bigger won't. Unfortunatley we didn't take the HT through there, sold it too soon, but I believe it is a nice trip.
Mike

 

[Slow_boat]

Yes, Prout 31/33 is on the list if we can find one at the right price. We need to have a look, really, little things like will swmbo be comfortable on skinny side decks, that sort of thing.

Is there a magazine about cruising multihulls? YM and the rest never seem to mention them and it's very difficult to find any reviews, let alone comparisons, of the sort of thing I'm interested in.

 

[Colvic Watson]

Have a look at Scott Brown's Multihull site; I found it helpful in researching the different makes. No magazine I'm afraid.

edit - just looked on his site and there's a Snowgoose 35 in sort of reasonable order for £33,000.

 

[Garold]

How much are you thinking is the top of your budget?
There must be a better way than a cat surely.. .

There is definitely a better way than a cat if you are soley concerned about sailing ability but for living space at the dock or on the hook, it is hard to beat.

Also, for anyone with any kind of limited mobility or even a wish not to live at an angle, then a cat has some advantages.

I'm not sure if my experience is unique, but I remember that in the past when we tried monohull family sailing I was the only one who enjoyed sailing upwind. For the rest of the family or passengers who are not interested in the science of sailing, it was not enjoyable. So we rarely did it if we could think of an alternative.

Just my thoughts.

Cheers

Garold

 

[Windy_Stu]

Gemini Owner

Hi Slow Boat

I am a very inexperienced Cat owner, and have only owned this one so take what I say with a pinch of salt ( we moved from 15 years of Power boating )

we recently brought a Gemini from Multihull World for just over £80K... we brought an Mc version ours is 2001 there is an earlier version... the M, which are a bit older and maybe a bit cheaper.... we looked long and hard at cheaper Prouts, but the issue for us was the size of the bunks.. They are VERY narrow... there is an owner’s version with bigger bunks, but we never found one for sail.

Now we aren’t huge, but it was a tight fit for us both... then u get in a Gemini, and lie in a Queen size double 5ft wide, and can see out over the bow with your tea in the morning ...

I know that’s nothing about how well they sail or how often you have to turn on the engine... but we plan to spend at least 8 hours out of every 24 asleep, and a comfy bed was high up on our list... We just couldn’t see that working on a Prout... I'm sure there are other great Cat's but for us, the Gem ticks most of the boxes.
With regards to "road tests" if you register on Multi Hull web site there are loads and loads of scanned reprints for just about evry Cat made… Ok that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but have a look and see what u think 

Best of luck with your search, maybe we will see you out on the water some time… we are the white cat with the guy on the back looking wistfully at the Fairline Targas wishing he could still afford the fuel 

Stu

 

[Slow_boat]

Windy Stu,

Thanks for that. A decent sized bed is high on our list of priorities. We call that queen sized bed on the Gemini the 'Good morning, peasants' bed because we could lie in bed and watch the mono's rolloing at the anchorage, but it's out of our price range so we'll carry on looking for an owners cabin Prout.We have 18 Months before we go, so plenty of time to look.

Thanks for the lead to the website.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Windy Stu,

Thanks for that. A decent sized bed is high on our list of priorities. We call that queen sized bed on the Gemini the 'Good morning, peasants' bed because we could lie in bed and watch the mono's rolloing at the anchorage, but it's out of our price range so we'll carry on looking for an owners cabin Prout.We have 18 Months before we go, so plenty of time to look.
.

Oh for a decent sized bed!
I'm at the stage of changing my forepeak around to try and get better use out of the space.
In this respect I really envy the big cat owners.