So, Therapy was asking for a list of cats with adequate headroom. I crawled around on a few here at Strictly Sail St. Petersburg, and here are my entire subjective tall person comments. By the way, turns out I am 6' 3", I shrunk over the years I guess.
Maine Cat 30: Excellent. Cannot quite stand in hulls, but could cook by resting my butt on rear counter (sink) while facing stove, and vice versa.
Head would not be good while taking a
shower, as headroom seems about a foot lower (I did not measure), but it is a big room, so I could live with it. This is an open bridge
deck design. The "salon" headroom is just fine (but only an inch left for me when standing) at the
helm, I have to duck somewhat in other
parts of the
salon. This is fine for a weekend/vacation cat, would not work for living, but then I don't want to live on a 30' boat anyway. Entry and exit from the hulls was easy, no risk of bumping your
head. I have decided to buy one of these boats.
Mahe 36: Excellent headroom in the hulls and salons, fine for standing everywhere. Boat I saw has a
fabric bimini. This
bimini is a high up as you can get it without touching the boom. It was find for standing in the
cockpit, but the
helm was real problem. There is a cutout in this bimini for about the helm seat, so you are always going to be in the sun and rain. For someone my height, maybe even 2 or 3 inches shorter than me, I think an accidental jibe might give a severe head injury, and the boom was a my eye level, not above the top of my head. I am told (I am not a cat sailor yet) that you only move the traveller on cats, and so an accidental jibe is not really a risk. Not qualified to know. I can second the previous comments about what look to be less stout
rigging (although I am not a
rigging expert), there was a
Seawind 1000XL next to the Mahe, and its rigging looked to be one or two sizes larger (I am not really taking about sizes, just a metaphor).
Seawind 1000XL: Adequate headroom throughout the hulls. This design looks to be for
charter and not
liveaboard, they have a muzzle loading bunk in each bow and stern, and a side loading master bunk amidships in the starboard
hull. The muzzle loaders looked like
single person bunks. The master berth looked small for me, but I did not try laying down in it. Headroom in the
salon was NOT standing headroom for me anywhere. Got a severe
knot in my head exiting the port
hull when I started to climb up the steps without looking, and I launched myself into the bottom of a counter (or something). I had to duck a lot to get into and out of the hulls. I also whacked myself on the head moving from the salon up the side going forward (on the hard bimini, or whatever you call it). This is not a tall person's boat, and for my use, all those
single bunks are wasted space.
Seawind 1160: Good headroom in salon and hulls. I whacked myself on the head again in this boat, but I have started to suffer brain damage from all the impacts, and I can't remember where. I was startled to find how little room there was in the hulls on this boat, but since it is out of my
price range, I apologize, I did not take even mental notes about it. Very nice
galley as I
recall.
So, take all that with a lot of grains of
salt, I am inexperienced with cats, and was not trying to right a review of each boat, just passing on some impressions.
Kevin