User talk:Roberthc;sailor

Prout Built Boats for American Market

In the middle to late 1950s an American Naval Officer named Richard (Dick) Brown stationed in England and nearing retirement was sailing Prout Shearwater catamarans in England. He worked with the Prout brothers to develop a version of the boat for the American market that became the Cougar catamaran. It had 6-inches more beam as allowed on USA roads without special permits, fiberglass hulls, more freeboard, aluminum mast and other changes, but retained Prout wooden decks and cockpits. Upon retirement to the USA he starting importing Cougars in the late 1950s and established fleets at several yacht clubs on the mid-Atlantic coast from Long Island, NY, to Charleston, SC, and at Clear Lake, Iowa. The boats arrived (with sails) in big wooden crates; trailers were sourced in America.

I personally knew Dick and purchased two American Cougar Cats from him. There was an active racing circuit and many of us trailered boats up and down the coast to regattas about 10 weekends each summer. In the late 1960s the Americans wished for lower maintenance and an all fiberglass version was being built in the United States.

The introduction of Hobie beach catamarans and the general decline of family one-design racing in the United States caused production to cease sometime in the 1970s.