# Pilothouses (good for wife?) bright and airy



## Thebriansnyder (Jun 4, 2013)

I stayed aboard our 272 Oday with my wife and 2 kids for about a month at a marina, we are looking for a little larger boat, not necessarily to live on yet, but just allow a little more space. I like the Nauticat 33 pilothouse. I have read countless forums regarding the inherent sailing limitations of a "motor sailor". The question is in regards to the pilothouse itself. My wife has depression and I can tell that being on a boat exposed to sunshine she feels much better. I feel like a pilothouse allows her to spend more time being above the water line with large open windows compared to being down below in a typical monohull (can't afford a catamaran) she likes the idea and feels like it will be a nice sunroom for her to sit and relax. It seems an added benefit is on rainy or cold days we are still exposed to more light than we would when cooped up down below. We may liveaboard in the future and we would get a larger boat but I really like this nauticat 33. Any thoughts on pilothouse sailboats improving your mood due to more light?

Thanks
From a husband that has a wife who is willing to liveaboard in a few years, trying to make her happy.


----------



## lajimo (Sep 5, 2011)

Sounds to me that you are on the right track. And Nauticats look like a good bet. I'd worry a little that the pilot house makes the rest of the boat a little cramped? But in just looking at photos.


----------



## kd3pc (Oct 19, 2006)

You are to be commended for sharing the Oday with that number, others would be crowded with just themselves.

The Nauticat line is exellent, if a bit pricey. For your wife's needs it can be ideal, it provides quite a bit of space and room to find multiple, comfortable places to sit for a bit. My wife is also depressed, but found life aboard some of the best days of her life, especially when compared to a house, or worse an apartment.

The pilothouse can provide a lot more view than a conventional boat and it was well designed to use a lot of that space....not much wasted space.

Best of luck


----------



## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

More cramped than four people on a 27-foot boat for a month? 

If you're in an area that charters Island Packets, you might try the PH version for a weekend. Not that you'd buy an IP, but just to get the feel for the PH and see if it does make a difference.


----------



## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

As something of a fan of pilot house sailing boats I'm not here to knock the Nauticat but just don't expect exhilarating performance. However, for a liveaboard where you'd accept motoring or motor sailing at least in light winds, they are a fine boat. Pilothouse does require some compromise re interior space/layout.


----------



## ccollins0601 (Dec 7, 2003)

If you can afford a Nauticat there are definitely (used) catamarans you can afford. Gemini, Iroquois, Edel, maybe a Prout. You just have to do your research and look a bit harder to find one. Or check out the Pearson Countess - I've never been aboard one but seen them in the yard and marina and think they are the best looking pilothouse boat I've seen.

FYI - I own an Iroquois MKII and my previous boat was an O'day 27 (older model, not the 272). I am 6'4" - I wouldn't live aboard the Iroquois due to lack of headroom. But others have, and there's definitely a lot more light and room than an O'day. And the sailing performance is night and day. Geminis and other small cats do have the headroom the the Iroquois lacks.


----------



## jrd22 (Nov 14, 2000)

My wife won't even let me look at a conventional sailboat after having almost 360 degrees of visibility from the main salon and the galley. You give up some living room in a pilothouse, the width is limited to the inside of the side decks instead of the full width of the hull. The upside is that that space becomes storage (at least in our boat) so there is plenty of room for everything that you never could find a place for before. The Nauticats are excellent boats, although as TD said, the 33 won't have great sailing performance compared to some of their other models like the 39, etc.


----------



## windmagic (Aug 16, 2013)

We love our Deck saloon (it cant be steered from inside , unless by remote on the auto pilot) . The space ,visibility etc is the best of a mono hull with the visibility all round of a cat . 
It is a van de stadt norman 40


----------



## mad_machine (Dec 16, 2012)

I got my seasprite for a steal because the previous owner's new girlfriend was clausterphobic and would not go into the cabin. He bought a pilothouse boat (I don't know which one) and sold me the sprite


----------



## Brent Swain (Jan 16, 2012)

jrd22 said:


> My wife won't even let me look at a conventional sailboat after having almost 360 degrees of visibility from the main salon and the galley. You give up some living room in a pilothouse, the width is limited to the inside of the side decks instead of the full width of the hull. The upside is that that space becomes storage (at least in our boat) so there is plenty of room for everything that you never could find a place for before. The Nauticats are excellent boats, although as TD said, the 33 won't have great sailing performance compared to some of their other models like the 39, etc.


If your pilot house is not too high, you can still run the counters under the side decks.
After years of sitting out in an open cockpit in the driving rain, I think a cruising boat without a pilot house is "masochistic insanity." It's also bad seamanship. Being exposed to the elements over time can cloud ones judgement. We call our boats "Pleasure Boats" and there is little pleasure in an open cockpit in bad weather.
Pilot houses have nothing to do with motor sailing. Some boats with pilothouses dont have motors. Pilothouses are not motors!


----------



## tdw (Oct 2, 2006)

Some time back we had regular here (TrueBlue ?) who owned a Nauticat 33 with his wife. I'm going on my somewhat dodgy memory here but that memory tells me they eventually sold her (the boat not the wife) because she (the wife not the boat) found the motion intolerable when on deck, the aft deck/cockpit being so high. Of course not all pilot house yachts have that problem.

There are some seriously lovely deck saloon/pilot houses from Scandinavia that are horrendously expensive and very rare outside of Europe but of the more commonly known Ted Brewer's 40'er (e.g JRD's ride), Bob Perry's Baba 40 and the Dehler DS41 are amongst my favorites. In a warm climate all that glass is a negative and here a fully enclosable cockpit is probably more apt.


----------



## Tallswede (Jul 18, 2012)

TDW beat me to it, Pilot houses are great for cooler climes and inclement weather. Where I live on the Gulf Coast a cockpit enclosure works well for cool/rainy weather and on warm days you can leave the bimini up for shade but get lots of breeze with the enclosure off. I think I would only get a pilot house boat if there were opening windows and inside controls.

Kevin


----------

