Pains in the Rear of the Boat

The rear of the boat continued Prout Catamarans' trend towards flash, not substance. The heater hatch admitted the most water, though the rear shower and the hatches over the steering system tried their best to keep up with the flow from the middle of the compartment.

• The heater hatch is a classic example of a design flaw that should have never made it out of the design studio. No other hatch on the boat is configured as brain-dead...
• The shower wand was installed in the right location, though the actual installation illustrates once again the inattention to details that has dogged the construction of our Escale.
• The emergency rudder access portholes over the rudder stocks allow the boat to be steered when the hydraulics fail but they also drenched the steering mechanism because they leaked.

As could be expected, Prout did not install any means of pumping out these compartments. Perhaps the designer never anticiapted the compartment to get wet? Unfortunately, the rearmost bulkheads were porous as delivered and hence allowed accumulated water to seep forward into the rear berth/engine spaces. Thus, multiple spaces could be ruined with one leak. Shouldn't a "crash compartment" be watertight? I know, what a novel concept...

Anyway, back here you can find the hydraulic steering, our furnace, a shower wand for swimmers, and various electrical cables for navigation and antennas. Once we cured the chronic water leaks, our steering system and the furnace became much happier. We also retrofit a pump-out system and water-proofed the walls of the bulkhead. Click on any link below to open a specific section and learn the details of our repairs.