Maine Cat

Maine Cats are good general purpose sailing boats, but they are not out of the common mould of cruisers. They are fast performance cruisers and would do well racing when unladen, but due to their versatile deck space, they are equally good for couples or families cruising in varied areas, or even for larger groups going on fishing trips or the like.

The most visable innovation is the covered, but open-sided bridgedeck, that can be fully enclosed with roll-up windows and screens. The hard top gives essential shelter against sun and rain from above, yet leaves the sides open, reducing performance-sapping windage and giving uninhibited views and easy access to all parts of the boat.

The hulls are slim for low wave drag and the sections are drawn for minimum wetted area, even when fully equipped for cruising. The whole structure, including furniture elements, is built in GRP sandwich with a Core-Cell core and optimised for low weight and high strength and stiffness. The objective is to reduce weight and drag to get a lively performance in all conditions.

Maine Cats are generally noteworthy for their well thought out and original measures to make various cruising tasks and situations easier, and apart from performance, the designer gives a lot of attention to improving aspects of boat usage and life afloat. Many of the current owners are liveaboards or people who spend considerable time cruising.