I've spent a lot of time on my friend's Mainecat 30 in the
Florida Keys and the
Bahamas. I think it is a great fair
weather boat, but my friend is very conservative when it comes to
weather. I have not been out in anything over about 6 feet, but it seemed to handle that well, taking some spray and green water on the
dodger occasionally, but nothing to worry about. I'm not very confident in the ability of that large flat
dodger window in the front to actually take a serious breaking wave. I would imagine you would be swimming in the
cockpit. If the
hull hatches were open you would take hours to get the water out as the
bilge pumps are pitifully small. Water capacity is limited, but the rain catchment system built into the hardtop and hulls works great and a good downpour can refill the
tanks. The boat is fairly simple to
single hand with all the lines leading back to the
cockpit. The
solar panels do a pretty good job with the
power requirements as my friend notes his boat has never been connected to the grid. I do find the
single 8D
battery a bit worrisome, but it has never actually been a problem. I personnally would prefer two
batteries just in case one failed, even if it was only big enough to start the engines. Despite the option of pull starting the engines access to the pull starter in the wells is not that great.
If you are planning a solo trip you can carry enough supplies that you should not have a problem for a couple of weeks. I've spent 10 days on her in the
Bahamas out islands with 4 people on board and no supply issues. Water was the big worry, but a few rain showers
solved that problem. One rainless week however we did run out of water and had to make for a port. A small
watermaker might be enough to solve that problem.
If you are planning on Island hopping and not making any thousand mile passages where you need to face the possibility of a major storm at sea, then the Mainecat might
work for you. Just watch the weather carefully, especially on longer hops.
I would note that my Friend's Mainecat was built in 2002 and I've never found the
outboard noise to be that big of a problem. It's certainly much quieter than my diesels. The
engine pods do hang a bit close to the water so they slap quite a bit in a chop, but it's not that bad.
I agree that the boat does not go to weather all that well. My friend usually resorts to motoring or
motor sailing when going to windward. The screecher works very well in light air and I've seen 7-8 knots in 5-7 true.