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Old 28-10-2007, 17:35   #1
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Living Space Square Footage

Has anyone seen (or made) measurements of the square footage of living space on a Cat? I heard several people say "It really depends on your needs". Well, I would like to know, which of the Cats provides the most "floor" space for living in the 38 to 44 foot range. I find myself leaning towards the Lagoons if only because of there open-ness. I plan to live aboard but know that the spouse of 20 some years can only stand me underfoot for so long.
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Old 28-10-2007, 18:03   #2
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I know I jumped from mono to multi but please don't take this wrong. Landlubbers square feet do not translate to sailor's square feet. It is like comparing apples to oranges. Go aboard, check it out. Get the very smallest boat that you can stand and learn to live with it by throwing things out of your life.
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Old 28-10-2007, 19:44   #3
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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.
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Old 28-10-2007, 20:19   #4
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cchesley --

I'm the one that referred to Maine Cats as "different", but don't take this in a negative way -- I certainly wasn't trying to infer that. Personally, I love the boats and would have found them a really fun boat to own. However, they do have a different design orientation that is substantially different than most others -- sort of a hybrid between a cruiser and open bridgedeck racing cat. It just wasn't flying with the admiral, and no amount of talking about sailing at 80% of windspeed was going to prevail.

But, if the design orientation is pleasing, then this would be a great boat. I was very impressed with both their thinking and the construction.

RE: square footage, I agree with both cchesely and SkiprJohn -- boats and houses aren't comparable. I've been on some cats that had lots of square footage, but their design made poor use of it and sometimes even omitted essential things for a cruiser (vs a charterer). I've seen others that were more "compact", but the way they made use of the space and their thoughtfulness for cruising sailors was outstanding.

Two examples (from my personal perspective): A Lagoon 420 is a very big boat with lots of square footage, but the "nav station" is tiny and there is no place to lay out a paper chart in the salon, other than the dining table. (Not a major "sin", but it shows what they were, and weren't, thinking about.) The Manta 42 is a much smaller boat (really a 38 footer with transom extensions), but there's lots of room to put out a paper chart, they have an excellent, well insulated freezer, and the cockpit/helm station work very well for single-handing, even with a crowd of guests in the cockpit.

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Old 28-10-2007, 22:34   #5
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Intentional Drifter,

Not offended in the least, in fact I do agree that it's different. I've always listened to the beat of a different drummer and thus the MC suits me. Alas, I won't go so far as to talk about 80% of windspeed cuz I have yet to see it. Mostly , your comment reminded me of a salesman at the Newport boat show. I was checking out the cats and he asked what I was specifically interested in. When he heard, 'Mainecat', he said "...I just don't get them!" I continue to be amazed at the apparent herd instinct in cat consumers. But then, it used to be a mono vs multi thing and now it's a chartermaran vs 'different'. Progress!
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