Design and Construction
The Escale 39 is female-molded monocoque construction built to Lloyd’s ISO 9002/BS5750 quality assurance and backed by a five-year anti-osmosis guarantee. Below the waterline the hull is solid fiberglass hand-laid with isophthalic resin; above it, the shell is Airex, Divinycell, or balsa-cored. A high-tech laminate of multi-axial cloths at a 1.5-to-1 resin-to-mat ratio, with foam and balsa cores, adds insulation, sound-deadening, and durability, while Kevlar reinforcement and multi-axial cloth in high-stress areas buy extra strength and weight savings. Integral water tanks seated in the keels form a double skin, and buoyancy compartments fore and aft combine with the sandwich construction and wood furniture to make the boat unsinkable. No Prout catamaran has ever sunk across roughly 10 million logged miles.
Rig and Handling
The Escale carries a “minsail” cutter rig stepped well aft, just forward of the cockpit, with a small 243-square-foot full-battened no-roach main and two roller-furling headsails. Fourteen stays support the mast, and because all halyards, headsail sheets, and reefing lines lead directly into the cockpit, the boat can be worked entirely from under cover. Both the main and staysail are self-tacking. Twin 18-horsepower Yanmar 2-GM diesels, one in each hull, let her turn on the spot, and owners report she handles well even on a single engine. Slim hulls and light displacement yield a quarter-gallon-per-hour-per-engine fuel burn. The shallow draft and low-aspect keels make her beachable, and hydraulic steering holds the skeg-mounted rudders where placed.
Performance Under Sail
To windward the Escale tacks through 90 to 95 degrees, nearly the equal of a cruising monohull, though testers less familiar with multihulls reported 110-degree angles. Owners recount 160- to 180-mile days, with the occasional 200 under favorable conditions. A boisterous Solent trial found slamming — the usual multihull weakness — almost entirely absent, and the mini-hull nacelle between the hulls prevents pounding. With sail area set well forward there is no broach tendency, and a double- or triple-reefed main with partially furled staysail gives a low center of effort in heavy air. One owner sailed 22,000 offshore miles on Escale 39s, including a Force 9/10 blow off North Africa held safe on a parachute anchor.
Accommodations
The saloon seats eight with panoramic 360-degree visibility and direct cockpit access. Fourteen hatches and four opening ports vent the tropics well. Several layouts were offered; one owner’s boat has two heads, one per hull, and three double berths spaced 15 feet apart for privacy, with one hull for the owner and the other for crew. Athwartships aft doubles make excellent sea berths on either tack. A large galley with a triple-sink and a nav station with full-size Admiralty chart table serve passage life, and a 12-foot aft deck stows the dinghy. A deep cockpit and built-in boarding ladders add safety.
Known Issues
The bridge-deck clearance has been criticized by some as insufficient, and at least one owner would like more. Like any multihull, the Escale is vulnerable to overloading.
The Verdict
The Escale 39 is a thoughtfully engineered British cruising cat that punches above its modest sail plan through meticulous cockpit-led handling and a proven unsinkable structure. It is a genuine passagemaker wrapped in a practical, if bridge-deck-limited, hull.
Pros
- Unsinkable construction with integral tank double-skin and fore/aft buoyancy
- All sail handling led to the cockpit; self-tacking main and staysail
- Twin engines for spot turns; single-engine handling documented
- Shallow draft with beachable, low-aspect keels
- Strong offshore record across the Prout fleet
Cons
- Bridge-deck clearance criticized as tight
- Vulnerable to overloading like all multihulls
