Welcome to the front end of our Prout Catamarans Escale!

The front of a Prout Catamarans Escale differs from many other catamaran designs by incorporating a solid deck with voluminous storage. Most catamarans have little in the way of center storage since weight in the front of the boat can unbalance it. As you can probably guess, having a proper anchor, chain, and rode in front locker storage represents a lot of weight.

Hence, it is not uncommon for cruisers to stow anchors and chains in the bilges of their boats while they traverse oceans. The anchors are of little use in areas where the ground is a long way down and the lower and the closer to the center of the boat the weight is, the "sea-kindlier" the boat will be. Monohulls and Catamarans are no different in this respect, except that catamarans are more sensitive to weight and imbalances.

In fact, a number of catamaran designs incorporate large trampoline surfaces between the two bow sections and anchor lockers under the center span near the center of the boat. While the anchor is still released next to the bowsprit, the majority of the weight sits further back where it does less harm.

While we have not spent huge amounts of time repairing this section of the boat, it is merely deferred effort - some issues like the lack of epoxied thru-hulls and unfinished bulkhead walls will have to be addressed one day. However, the projects we have undertaken illustrate clearly the rather cavalier attitude taken by Prout Catamarans in its construction of our Escale. Here then are the issues we have had to deal with and how much time we have spent thus far on each one. Click on any hyper link below to open a specific section and learn the details of our repairs.