Sailing and cats...

[duncan99210]

Before we set off on our travels, we took our 12 year old cat over to Dublin where he was adopted by our daughter's family. He tolerated the car journey down to the Menai, vocally detested the dinghy trip to the boat and rapidly found the point of least movement - by the mast support - and thereafter refused to budge except for occasional visits to the food dish and litter tray. He remained subdued on arrival at Howth and was reported as silent on his car trip to his new home..... He was on board for a total of about 36 hours.
This led us to the decision not to replace him unless it was with a kitten which could be brought up on board and thus not face the trauma of getting used to living on a boat. We've met many cats on our travels all friendly and, for the most part, well behaved. If it weren't for the need to return to the UK with the added hassle of surface travel, I think we'd have got one added to the ships company by now. If nothing else, it'd deter SWMBOs pet hate of having any rats on board.

 

[Skylark]

Serious questions.

How do you "break them in" to life (weekends) aboard?
Do you tether the beasts to a life line / harness to prevent them from taking a dip?
Is a small pet lifejacket OTT?
Netting the guardwires (which I really don't want to do).

Ours is 4 years old but she's only owned us for about 4 months. She's still a bit skittish as she was run over by a car when she was 6 months old.

I only recall seeing two sailing boats with cats around my cruising grounds. We met a couple in Douglas and their cat seemed very content under the spray hood. A French boat in Northern Ireland had two cats and these were tethered.

 

[RichardTaylor]

We take Laurie (aka Lolly) with us on most trips. He was about 2 when he first went sailing and he seems to enjoy it. When at sea he has to wear a harness and is on a "small dog" lead to restrict his movement. Most of the time when at sea he is found under the sprayhood and has to be moved to operate clutches. He also has a lifejacket but he just flops around and become houdini freeing himself and walking up into the cockpit just at the worst moment!!! He knows not to go outside of the guard wires and has spent up to 17 days without leaving the confines of the boat. All waste is in a litter tray although the litter gets dragged out and around the boat so cleaning is a routine. All in all he is great fun on the boat and we enjoy having him with us.

 

[pagoda]

Serious questions.

How do you "break them in" to life (weekends) aboard?
Do you tether the beasts to a life line / harness to prevent them from taking a dip?
Is a small pet lifejacket OTT?
Netting the guardwires (which I really don't want to do).

Ours is 4 years old but she's only owned us for about 4 months. She's still a bit skittish as she was run over by a car when she was 6 months old.

I only recall seeing two sailing boats with cats around my cruising grounds. We met a couple in Douglas and their cat seemed very content under the spray hood. A French boat in Northern Ireland had two cats and these were tethered.

Our cat was 15 1/2 when we took her on our first long trip. Adapted well. Allowed to walk about (watched closely !), but seems content to wander to the bow and return to cockpit. Not allowed out the cockpit under way. No attempt made to jump ashore yet. Not been on a lead tether.

 

[Fossil]

We never had problems adapting the cat to weekending on the boat when we lived in Brussels and sailed from Wemeldinge, Netherlands. My wife used to have her on a makeshift lead consisting of a harness and a short strap, extended with a 5m piece of cord. After a while, though we abandoned this as she seemed to know which boat was hers, even in strange marinas. We never used the lead once aboard and never had the slightest fear of her falling overboard. She would only venture forward of the cockpit if the boat was stationary on calm water, otherwise would stay below.

He favourite time was early evening when she would come out on deck and play under the sail-cover, On one occasion she tried climbing up our mast steps:

 

[Tricia]

My cat (Mouse) has lived on board ever since she was a kitten (rescue cat). The few times we have been in marinas she stays on board and shows no interest in leaving the boat. Since we're pretty much always at anchor or on a mooring she isn't used to going onto other people's boats or used to being on land.

She has fallen in 3 times, twice she got herself out by climbing up the boarding ladder and the last time was in a marina where she clung to the mooring lines and screamed her head off. It was pretty startling to wake up at 6am to all this noise.

At night, on passage, we make her wear a harness, which she hates and promptly falls over, pretends she can't walk and ends up crawling into the cabin to sit on the off watch and cry piteously to be released. If it's really rough she doesn't leave the cabin unless she is desperate to have a look around. During calms, she lies on the cockpit floor with her legs in the air or sits forward just behind the fore hatch.

We've sailed with her from Malaysia to Hong Kong, back to the Philippines and Malaysia (Langkawi). She doesn't seem to mind too much and likes to sleep with me on my off watches with her front paws on my feet.

It's not all bliss though as, at night under way, she likes to play tag which means she has to get out of the cabin before you can put her harness on and run up the front of the boat and sit on the rolled up dinghy. She won't come back to the cockpit unless you hide from her then she comes along to see where you are. Also, we have carpet around the v-berth and it is now bald in spots from her scratching, and one of the screw hole plugs in the outside grab rails has been pulled out by scratching there as well.

I wouldn't be without her.

Tricia

 

[sailaboutvic]

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

Cats can swim better then some people, one thing owner can do is hang towels on some thing that a cat can climb back up on .
You be suprise how smart most cats are , we met one boat some years back who had two cats , both use to jump in at anchor for a swim .

 

[TQA]

If at anchor or even in a marina consider leaving a piece of netting over the stern as a cat self rescue ladder. All of my cats have learned to use it.

One of my boat cats loved sailing and used to make passage on the boom. I had a reef in on the day of the pic so it was blowing at least 20 knots.
View attachment 56813

But my current cat HATES sailing and cuddles up against me on passage and does not leave my side while I am in the cockpit. He also follows my progress around the boat if I go for a swim and I see his worried look as he peers over the side.

View attachment 56814

 

[snowleopard]

We heard of an unexpected problem from some liveaboards. One of their cats was given to visiting other boats in the marina and let itself into another boat through an open window in the cabin side. Having jumped down it was unable to get back up again and was trapped. The owner of the boat was away and hadn't left a key with the marina. I don't know how they found the cat or got it out but it could have had a nasty ending for both cat and boat owners.

 

[RichardS]

We heard of an unexpected problem from some liveaboards. One of their cats was given to visiting other boats in the marina and let itself into another boat through an open window in the cabin side. Having jumped down it was unable to get back up again and was trapped. The owner of the boat was away and hadn't left a key with the marina. I don't know how they found the cat or got it out but it could have had a nasty ending for both cat and boat owners.

Let's hope that they weren't away for very long as leaving a side window open wide enough for a cat to get in sounds like a recipe for something much worse than a pile of moggie poo. :ambivalence:

Richard

 

[Serin]

There was a liveaboard cat in a marina we berthed in for a while. When the weather was very hot he used to sneak aboard our boat and curl up to sleep in the chain locker, which was probably nice and cool. We got into the habit of checking the locker whenever we went out, not wanting to carry the poor beast off, or, worse still, get him tangled up in, or under, the chain when we anchored.

He was a nice cat. A bit of a nuisance, but very charming.

 

[Serin]

There was a liveaboard cat in a marina we berthed in for a while. When the weather was very hot he used to sneak aboard our boat and curl up to sleep in the chain locker, which was probably nice and cool. We got into the habit of checking the locker whenever we went out, not wanting to carry the poor beast off, or, worse still, get him tangled up in, or under, the chain when we anchored.

He was a nice cat. A bit of a nuisance, but very charming.

 

[aluijten]

Our cats are kept in house when not sailing as we live in the inner town (too much traffic). That probably helps keeping them on our boat as well. We've had little problems with our cats, only one that is a bit susceptible to seasickness.

Most of the time they seem happy to be on-board and happy with all the attention they get, much more then when at home. I can confirm as well that they can swim pretty good, although we never saw one that enjoyed that (only on youtube).

 

[duncan99210]

There was a liveaboard cat in a marina we berthed in for a while. When the weather was very hot he used to sneak aboard our boat and curl up to sleep in the chain locker, which was probably nice and cool. We got into the habit of checking the locker whenever we went out, not wanting to carry the poor beast off, or, worse still, get him tangled up in, or under, the chain when we anchored.

He was a nice cat. A bit of a nuisance, but very charming.

There was a marina cat in Gouvia, fat sassy chap, who'd invite himself on board whenever he thought there might be some scraps coming his way. He tended to sleep on board the last yacht visited that day. This came to a halt, however, on the day he had spent the night tucked up in the sail bag of our neighbours boat. They left early that morning to do a shake down sail after the winter layover. On unzipping the bag, the startled cat leapt out, heading for the stern and the pontoon and safety....... Only to find no pontoon, only water. Somehow he stopped himself going overboard, scrambled down the companionway and cowered until the boat was moored. Whereupon, he disappeared down the pontoon at high speed. It was days before he reappeared and he remained reluctant to board any boats for some time thereafter.

 

[snowleopard]

If considering getting a cat for the boat, how about this? http://www.outdoorgb.com/p/freddy_ships_cat/?utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=directory&utm_content=GBR&currency=GBP&country=GBR&SelectedBundle=105324&gclid=Cj0KEQjw2_23BRDb_qbvzK3X8M8BEiQAg87AF2LUPy3aUdNXboHWQY90Q5TQMGRHvvX0-yH3ZlYu4RMaAmKX8P8HAQ