See full version: Keeping a cat on a sailboat
It is best to clean the mat out everyday, since the cats can accidentally track messes around if the box is too full. If at sea, we simply dump all the contents overboard and rinse the mat and litter box out with seawater; in the marina or inland we scoop the solid pieces into a container or baggie, dispose of properly, and rinse the mat out in the water. here
First of all, we absolutely love having our cats on board, and highly recommend people cruise with pets (cats or dogs). Precious and Xena most love when after a day of sailing, the anchor is set and all is quiet, to run around decks excitedly checking out our new view. Their innocence and excitement adds a special dimension to our cruising experience. Time after time, they remind us of what really matters in life: that you feel safe, have food in your bowl, and have a warm place to sleep with someone who loves you. Our cats are part of our family and we couldn't imagine not having them along now.
If your cats are anything like ours, they will ignore you. So, you may have to tie them up. Both our cats wear tiny cat harnesses and each has a 6' long leash that will allow them to roam the cockpit, but keep them on the boat. This comes in handy both at the dock, and when sailing when tethers are required for everyone.
We never lets the cats roam the dock by themselves, for a number of reasons: [links]
To get your cats used to using a turf-mat, sprinkle a bit of their regular litter on top of it for a week or so. They'll get the idea quickly. here
We can keep sailing comfortably in less than 10 knots of true wind. We ended the transatlantic run to St. Lucia with only about five motoring hours—many fewer, we believe, than we would have had on Altair with her 6ft keel and heavier displacement.
Weight is a much bigger deal on a catamaran. Excessive weight can compromise a multihull’s performance much faster and more dramatically than on a monohull. We outfitted Archer to be as simple as possible with 12-volt electricity, no generator, no washer/dryer, no ice maker and AC in the saloon only, which we only use when docked with shorepower.
In our monohull days, we were very comfortable sailing wing-on-wing, usually with the mainsail stowed, the genoa poled out to windward and the jib flying to leeward. On Archer, however, we do not have a pole—most catamaran sailors don’t use them—so we sail with our bright-red reacher to leeward and the main with a preventer on the boom to the other side. When we substitute the genoa for the reacher in higher wind conditions or in anticipation of squalls, we add a barber hauler to better control the height of the clews. The trick to flying a spinnaker without a pole, we discovered, is to apply tension to both guys, one on each hull, and trim the sheet to keep the chute full.
As the sun dropped below the western horizon one evening in December 2014, we watched the parting glow from the cockpit of Archer, our Outremer 51 catamaran. We were anchored in Bequia’s Admiralty Bay, our first island stop after completing the ARC+ rally from Gran Canaria to St. Lucia via the Cape Verde islands. When darkness fell, we watched the masthead lights of the monohulls anchored nearby whip metronomically back and forth in the harbor swell. Unaffected by the motion of the sea, Archer sat quietly.
Sailing and living aboard a cat is, in some ways, very similar to cruising on a monohull. After all, sailing is sailing, and the same principles apply to both types of boats. But all boats are different, as we have experienced when we changed monohulls in the past.
Steering a cat is much more a matter of watching the gauges than with a monohull. We steer Archer with the autopilot, carefully tweaking degree by degree to aim the boat as far downwind as possible and keep the sails full. Alternatively, we use her tiller to steer with greater feeling for the motion of the boat and its reaction to the wind—a bit closer to the feel of a monohull.
We reef at about the same wind speeds on Archer as we did on Altair. And on both boats, it is often the case that reefing doesn’t slow the boat; it just makes it more comfortable. The difference is that a monohull tells you when to reef because you can feel the strain on the rigging and the excessive heel of the hull. On a catamaran, you reef at prescribed wind speeds as shown on the gauges, because the strain on the rig is less evident, and you are always sailing flat. more
It would be a huge shock to your cat if the first time they had to swim with the life jacket on, was when they accidentally fell off the boat. [links]
If it is too loose, your cat may slip out of it while in the water and it may hinder their ability to swim. However, life jackets that are too tight may also hinder their ability to move easily.
A brightly coloured life jacket or vest will help ensure that you can see your kitty if they do fall in the water. here
It is ideal to have a handle between the shoulder blades of the lifejacket so that you can easily pull you kitty to safety, if they fall in the water.
Introduce the life jacket on a boat with minimum movement here
Bright Colour here
It seems the owners of some of our neighboring boats had recently prepped their craft for the threat, salting their boats’ decks and storage lockers with mothballs in hopes their pungent odor would keep critters at bay. Following a sunny Indian summer day that had been perfect for the final ‘messing-about’ in their boats for the season, the air over the boat yard fairly reeked of attics and sweater chests. [links]
Tips for keeping the critters off of your boat during winter storage.
I noted the same distinct scent on the late autumn breeze as I prepared to rake leaves from the deck of our family’s Flote-Bote, and it wasn’t roast turkey. The odor reminded me that I needed to weigh down the seat bases and batten down the steering console as well as establishing my own scent barrier to keep critters from finding a comfortable compartment in which to set up housekeeping and spend the winter months aboard. here
“It smells like grandma’s house” my tween-age son commented as we walked among the pontoon boats that were placed on blocks or atop their trailers for storage in the off season in the parking lot at our local boat club.
I’ve used moth balls – crystals, actually, which we put in aluminum pie pans in a couple places under the boat cover – and they worked. But a few years back, based on advice from a fellow boater I met on a trip, I switched to scented laundry fabric softener sheets. I put a sheet in the bottom of each locker and a few more pinned down under furniture legs to keep them from blowing around. I replace them in mid-winter and the boat has remained mouse-, ‘coon-, cat- and, ‘possum-free ever since. And smells a heck of a lot better come spring. here