Sailing and cats...

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thecommander

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...pain in the arse. Somewhat like teenagers. Can't go sailing for more than a night and then when we do, SWMBO worries about them being lonely and/or trashing the house in revenge.

Solution! Bring the little [strike]buggers[/strike] critters with us.

After a little bit of research, we've learnt that most cats actually get sea sick and outdoor cats struggle to adapt to the confinement of living onboard a yacht. Thankfully our two are house bound, so confinement and lack of shrubbery shouldn't be a problem, but can't promise they won't get sea sick.

At the moment our current boat is a tad small to be used as a floating cattery but in the coming years we're hoping to trade up to a bigger boat, allowing us to cruise and ultimately liveaboard.

I don't suppose anybody else has faced this dilemma? Perhaps you have with small dogs…

Should we lease them to a friend for 6 months? Or get rid of the boat... or let SWMBO stay at home with the cats?
 
I've read of plenty of old-school liveaboards with a cat. And they used to be standard on ships to deal with the rats, so they can't all be permanently seasick.

Pete
 
Simon, the ship's cat on HMS Amethyst was given the Dickens Medal ( animal VC ) for keeping the rats down despite being wounded when the ship was shelled and held trapped by the Chinese in the 1947 Yangtse Incident - see film by that name.

Miles & Beryl Smeeton ( with crew chum John Guzzwell ) had a cat with them which survived the pitchpoling then later rolling of Tzu Hang off Cape Horn as recounted in ' Once Is Enough '.

However I seem to remember in another true story, Robin Lee Graham on his small sloop ' Dove ' had a cat which came to a sad end.
 
We regularly took our cat with us when we cruised all over Holland, for up to 3 months at a time, in our Jaguar 27, "Evette". She was used to travelling in the car, liked being with us on the boat and was usually only sick if we tried anything too ambitious on the first day.

When she was quite small, she used to like riding in the cockpit recesses and even learned to tack herself to the down side when we went about. As she acquired age, bulk and dignity, she gave this up for a nest on the spinnaker bag in the port quarterberth where the motion was less and she could be comfortable on either tack, only emerging for a check-up when we put the motor on.

Sanitary arrangements were not usually a problem, a litter tray was placed on the floor in from of the heads, which she loyally used whenever we were upright - she got quite good at letting us know when she wanted to go and we could heave to or bear off for the few minutes it took.

Her feeding/watering dishes lived under the saloon table on a piece of non-skid material.

We had a great time and met many Dutch yachties who take their cats and dogs with them, For my money, a cat is much easier to cope with on a cruise as they don't need to go ashore every day.
 
Very topical thread for us as we have recently been adopted by a cat. We've been 11 years without one and enjoyed the relative freedom. I just know that my crew would prefer not to simply leave the cat at home while we go to the boat for weekends / holidays. So we, too, have been thinking about taking the cat to the boat. Last night, however, she took her first car journey to the Vet and never stopped screaming. It took me several attempts to get her into the carrier and I now have the scratches and bite marks to prove it. That car journey was less than a mile and its 110 to the boat.
 
Cats adapt easy . Ours moggie , Eddie Medcat , ( look him up ) get sea sick the first time out every year and then that's it , in rough weather , he just goes down below and hides , not to be seen again until he can smell land , we anchor for 8 month but in the odd time we do go on to a quay , as long as there no traffic about we let him off , he never go far , coming back after a few hours of exploring .
Many people have cats on board , they seen very happy and safe sitting on the spray hood or boom watching the world go round .
There a few miffs about cats , one is they can't swim , believe me a cat can swim , they might not like water but they can swim , the other is if you move home and don't keep your cat in for a while he will get lost , well as I said we all tend to let our cats off in new places but if your really that worried you can get a tracker .
We never had rats or mice , and opposite to what you read on here by some who just hate animal , most people just love them and happy to have them around .
Eddie spend most of the day lying on the centre pontoon getting attention from the sailor .
There are two problem we have and these happen every year when we have our winter break from sailing and these are not the cat fault but other kind sailors.
We always ask others not to feed him any thing , and not to encourages him on board their boat , if any thing chase him off .
People done seen to under stand that a cat don't know the different from one boat to the next and once people start encourage him on board , they will think every boat wants them and of cause not the case , there away the odd one who done and most year you will find one of these people , now and then when this happen it can be very unpleasant but most of the time we tell them to just throw water over him and he won't come back , this normally does the job and all is well .
If you have a Cat take him , he soon find his sea legs .
 
Tales I've heard about cats in boats are
When in a marina and have gone missing, they will be found on the most expensive boat in the marina curled up on something soft and very white.
They tend to go for a prowl half an hour before the tides dictate that you must leave.
They love to watch fish and will walk out on the boom leaning against the sail to the end of the boom then lie down and refuse to return when you want to tack. However the follow through consequences can be quite amusing to the non cat owner!
If you have a wooden mast, cats climb to the cross trees and then call for help! Sometimes higher.
One of the Antarctic explorers, I think it was Captain Cook, caught the first fish in the Antarctic by chipping it off the ice on the bow of his ship and called it Pagitoes (or something similar, Latin for frozen so I believe). He took it below to thaw out so he could disect it but the ship's cat operated on it first.
Mike
 
Thanks for the replies.

Luckily we're only 30 minutes from the boat, so a car journey shouldn't be an issue for them and they're already well rehearsed.

We normally use a Feliway spray which relaxes them before a car journey. I expect it's worth spraying the boat with it before the cats arrive.

Anyhow our current boat is far too small for cats, even for a night, but we're already thinking for our next boat which should have more accommodation.

We're thinking Westerly Tempest as our dream boat, but they're very expensive. Probably end with a Mirage 28 or a Jaguar 28.

I think getting the litter tray out of the way would be important. Adding a net to the guard wire is probably a must with small animals onboard? Don't want to end up in a cat overboard scenario. Perhaps adding sisal rope to the mast compression post is a good idea? I don't think SWMBO would be comfortable having the cats in the cockpit whilst at sea, unless at anchor.
 
Most pets adapt very quickly to being on the boat, our tommy (dog) friends with Eddie (as in Eddie tolerates him, just like Vic and me :D) is also often sick on the first sail of the season. Crossing Biscay for the first time in rough(ish) conditions he just slept for 2 days. He's now in his 7th sailing year, doubt he remembers life in a house.
Personally I think it'd be easier to have a cat onboard than a dog, they're more independent creatures, use a litter tray so don't need rowing ashore.
Sometimes us owners are too nervous, how many stories have we all heard of whereby animals fall in the water then the owner swims to rescue them? It's usually us silly humans that drown. There are also countless herbal remedies to calm an anxious pet whilst they're getting used to a new situation. Look for pet "rescue remedy" and similar.
 
I recall hearing a story of one jumping ship during a RTIR.

Vegable said:
Tales I've heard about cats in boats are
When in a marina and have gone missing, they will be found on the most expensive boat in the marina curled up on something soft and very white.
They tend to go for a prowl half an hour before the tides dictate that you must leave.
They love to watch fish and will walk out on the boom leaning against the sail to the end of the boom then lie down and refuse to return when you want to tack. However the follow through consequences can be quite amusing to the non cat owner!
If you have a wooden mast, cats climb to the cross trees and then call for help! Sometimes higher.
One of the Antarctic explorers, I think it was Captain Cook, caught the first fish in the Antarctic by chipping it off the ice on the bow of his ship and called it Pagitoes (or something similar, Latin for frozen so I believe). He took it below to thaw out so he could disect it but the ship's cat operated on it first.
Mike
Click to expand...
 
SamanthaTabs said:
Sometimes us owners are too nervous, how many stories have we all heard of whereby animals fall in the water then the owner swims to rescue them?
Click to expand...

Perhaps boats with cats on board ought to carry something like an old-fashioned butterfly net, strapped on deck next to the mop and boathook, to fish the thing out after it's fallen in? :)

Pete
 
Google 'Millie Cat Swimming'. We met Millie (and her owners) quite a few years ago in Turkey and Millie is still going strong - I suspect she has more sea miles than most of us..........
 
Last edited:
prv said:
Perhaps boats with cats on board ought to carry something like an old-fashioned butterfly net, strapped on deck next to the mop and boathook, to fish the thing out after it's fallen in? :)

Pete
Click to expand...

We took ours from Orkney all the way down the west coast last year - back to the Clyde. Other than the odd night in a marina, she had never been on board much. She was only sick once, otherwise hiding in our duvet in an aft cabin. Enjoys coming into the cockpit and watching things - appreciates any fish we catch etc.
She is too old to leave in a cattery for weeks on end, so we will take her again this season. Occasionally looks speculatively at flat water if tied up somewhere (is it solid?)
We carry a big fish-landing net just in case! Ours hates cars, vocally, but says very little on the boat. Doesn't even mind the engine that much.

You can only try and see how it goes.?
 
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