One of the things I most appreciate about my MaineCat is the long sightlines. I now feel almost claustrophobic on a
Lagoon 380. Down below on my MC, I have 12-15' sightlines in the
hull and from my bunk. The feeling of spaciousness is awesome. The reason is because I only have two sleeping cabins essentially. The 3 and 4
cabin cats tend to be all chopped up inside so that each
cabin can be 'private'. It's a
trade off, but seriously, do you really want to cook and wash dishes for 6 or 8 souls? I also have an open bridgedeck space that is under a 15' 6" square hardtop. My bridgedeck isn't divided into a
cockpit and a
salon... it is all in one. This openness is positively addictive.
Someone on another thread here referred to the MaineCat as 'different'. Probably as in a bit difficult to adjust our conceptions of boats too 'different'. Yes, it is, but don't let all that 'plastic' enclosure
concept put you off. No, it's not all 'in' a cabin but it is bright, delightful and has 360 degree visibility. Did you decide to buy a
boat and go cruising to all those wonderful, scenic places just so you could hide from the
wind, sun, bugs, view down below? I didn't think so.
The only other 'complaint' often is in reference to the ultimate storm at sea. You can still hunker down in a 'cabin' if you must but I must tell you that I'd rather be on watch, sheltered from the
wind and spray where I can still see what's coming at me until those windows blow out. The other 99.99 percent of the time, I come out ahead.
BTW, did you ever notice that those 50-60' 35
knot sportfisherman seem to be able to keep their soft flybridge
bimini enclosures intact while punching into a 30
knot headwind? I left my windows in while having the boat delivered to the
west coast as
deck cargo. Let's see, from experience I know that that meant at least 45-50 knot apparent wind at times if not more. (15 kt ship speed,30+ knot headwinds on occasion). Boat AND plastic windows arrived intact.
Yup. Different.
Thanks for listening.