Prout Snowgoose 37

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paulphillips

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Considering purchasing a Prout Snowgoose 37 for French canals and med, but read stories about them being very susceptible to overloading. Surely if they've regularly crossed the Atlantic with presumably minimum 6 weeks worth of water, food, fuel and stores they can't be that bad, or is there a better catamaran of similar size. Anyone got any experience?
 
paulphillips said:
Considering purchasing a Prout Snowgoose 37 for French canals and med, but read stories about them being very susceptible to overloading. Surely if they've regularly crossed the Atlantic with presumably minimum 6 weeks worth of water, food, fuel and stores they can't be that bad, or is there a better catamaran of similar size. Anyone got any experience?
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Skippered one on an Atlantic circuit. They are not load carriers. We kept ours very light. Most don't.
 
They were designed to be able to transit the canals to the med. Don't think there are many other cats that are better when you consider their pedigree and cost.
All cats have to be loaded carefully if you want them to sail as intended but you do often see them very low in the water but that is the owners choice :)
 
Took one through the french canals via St Valery years ago lived aboard with four kids and a dog for over two years. We had a ball ! It's true they don't like to be loaded as the do not have a huge clearance from the centre nacale to the sea , it bangs ! However a couple with full tanks would struggle to overload one . Any more info get in touch.

John
 
As said any cat overloaded will lose performance - and cats are so, so easy to overload as there is so much space. Again, as said, it is the owner's choice.

Usually the 2 biggest single items of weight are water and fuel. Desal units solve the water issue to some extent, at a cost, and fuel can be a juggling act (good management)

But if you do not carry lots of toys and are strict (think of how strict owners are who race yachts seriously) then they do not need to lose that edge.

There are obviously more modern cats that will be 'better', but not necessarily better at being loaded, but they will cost more.

Jonathan
 
Batteries are heavier than water. Most people have massive banks. I've calculated on my Snowgoose it would be lighter to reduce the bank and get a generator for a net 60-70kg saving.
 
Batteries are MUCH heavier than water!

In general people are heavier....... :) and drink the wine

We carry 400amp/hr for house and 60amp/hr for engine(s). We have solar (and Australian sun) and a wind and water gen. Toyed with a Honda gen set - but never committed.

We use the desal unit, bake bread on an electric bread maker (don't use a microwave) and recharge the electronics (iPad, camera, phone, Mac) when we motor - and are very strict (granddaughters think I'm a pain).

Jonathan
 
living onboard for a length of time you may find that you collect a lot of stuff and end up towards the overloaded side, performance will dip somewhat depending upon the level of overloading but what does that matter when it will still sail reasonably, certainly so off the wind, and you will spend more time at anchor or moored than sailing anyway (unless you plan on zipping around the Med in short order) so the extra deck space will be a huge reward.
 
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