Exciting Structural Defects Lead To Cracks, Leaks, And Squeaks

The last thing we expected the family Prout Escale catamaran to have issues with was structural rigidity. After all, the hull of our former Prout Snowgoose had served us well and was very rigid. When the family decided to sell the Snowgoose and buy a new Escale, we hoped to get around Prout Catamarans' OEM equipment limitations by specifying a lot of non-standard hardware and by electing to install as much equipment in the United States as possible.

We also thought that any risk with respect to the boats new hull deign would be taken care of by the time Prout Catamarans had built the two Escales preceeding ours in the series. Furthermore, since our Escale spent winters in Florida and Maryland as the Prout show boat, we assumed that any latent defects we reported would be taken care of by Prout while the boat was in their care.

Unfortunately, the structural integrity of our Escale upon delivery was marginal at best. The hulls would flex in different directions as waves passed underneath. Cabinetry and joinery opened and closed in response down below. Worse, the windows that wrap around the front of the boat snapped almost immediately. Prout Catamarans was well aware of the issues plaguing the boat as every sail with prospective clients in anything but calm conditions would illustrate the fragility of the boat as delivered.

In this section of the web-site, I delve into the root causes of our structural problems and the subsequent retrofits and repairs that were necessary to elevate the performance of the boat to safe levels. Click on any link below to look at a specific section of our structural repair story.