Buying a used Prout: a pioneering design with a short, turbulent business history
Every Prout catamaran, whatever its size or decade, was built around the same shoal-draft cruising logic: a narrow-beam hull form, a small "minsail" cutter rig kept well aft, low-aspect keels meant for drying out and beaching, and rudders tucked behind protective skegs. What varies far more than that underlying design is the boat's business history. The yard moved from independent family ownership into contract-building other builders' monohulls to stay solvent, then into a foreign-owned yard straining under rising labor hours, then into administration and liquidation within about eighteen months. A used Prout is as much a bet on which point in that arc built the hull as it is a bet on the design itself.
Which era to target
The clearest dividing line falls around 2000. Boats built in the yard's independent decades came out of a company that, according to an owner-documented history of the business, was contract-building Moody Elite monohulls and outsourcing smaller-catamaran production to South Africa just to stay afloat — signs of financial strain well before any change in ownership. The range sold under Quest's ownership, from the July 2000 purchase through the September 2001 administration, narrowed to just two sailing models, the 38 and the 46, while the man-hours needed to build a single 38-footer reportedly doubled to around 5,000 — a period worth treating as its own bracket rather than assuming continuity with earlier production. Anything built after the original company's February 2002 closure carrying a Prout 38 hull is, properly, a Broadblue Prestige 38: a related but separately built boat, finished by the yard that former Prout managing director Rob Underwood went on to run.
What to inspect across the range
Bridgedeck clearance shows up as a recurring theme rather than a one-model quirk. A review of the Snowgoose 37 warned that its covered foredeck and low bridgedeck bring on slamming in rougher weather, particularly on a close reach in heavy conditions, and a separate review of the Escale 39 similarly flagged bridgedeck clearance as criticized by some owners as insufficient, with the reviewing owner saying he'd like to see more of it. That same Escale 39 review also called the model vulnerable to overloading — worth weighing against payload and gear before buying rather than after.
Navigating the lineup
Size sorts the range into fairly clear bands: the compact Quest 31 and 33 and the Snowgoose 35 at the smaller end, the Snowgoose 37 and Elite and the Prout 45 and Escale 39 in the cruising middle, and the larger 60-foot-plus sailing and power catamarans built later in Thailand at the top. The full model directory on this page breaks each one out for closer comparison.
Where they're listed
Prout listings appear across 18 countries. United States has the most listings with 34 (36.6%), followed by United Kingdom and Greece.
Country view
93 listings · 18 countries| Country | Median ask | Listings · 12 mo | Active · 90 d | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $157,000 | 34 | 8 | 36.6% |
| United Kingdom | $44,870 | 14 | 3 | 15.1% |
| Greece | $53,708 | 7 | 1 | 7.5% |
| Trinidad and Tobago | $134,825 | 5 | 0 | 5.4% |
| Australia | $286,898 | 4 | 3 | 4.3% |
| Germany | $96,158 | 4 | 0 | 4.3% |
| Dominican Republic | $39,000 | 4 | 4 | 4.3% |
| France | $139,434 | 4 | 0 | 4.3% |
| Spain | $69,928 | 3 | 0 | 3.2% |
| Grenada | $135,000 | 3 | 2 | 3.2% |
| Antigua and Barbuda | $1,500,000 | 2 | 2 | 2.2% |
| Guatemala | $175,000 | 2 | 0 | 2.2% |
| 6 other countries | — | 7 | 5 | 7.5% |
All Prout models
5 models grouped by length overall. Open any model to see recent asking prices and active listings.