*Lately I have been reading a lot of comments about the Maine Cat 47, so I
went to the Miami boat show to take a good look at this cat.
I must say I never sea trialed the boat but after going inside, I noticed
that for its size I was not so impressed with the interior for the published
price and by the time I went to see the staterooms on the lower floor, I
think the access steps going down have a serious flaw design. They are so
steep that even at the marina one could break a leg doing down to say the
least. I can just imagine what it would be like to go down below in any kind
of seaway as described in the trip back to the Abacos.
Also, there are no gates or protection from falling down the stairways on
both sides of the steering station.
Maybe Maine Cat can redesign this flaw and make it a safer boat?
I have owned several boats including three Catamarans, one of them being a
Catana 44 sailing cat, but I never bought one with steps that are not in the
normal size and elevation.
I have seen these kind of steps on some other designs where the steps looked
like an after thought just to get someone down below but in my opinion very
dangerous.
Buyer beware of bad **step **design . That is my opinion and I felt I had to
say what I found out to this forum.
Cheers,
George*
good comments about about the stairs on the first production maine cat P-47.
just about everyone who saw the boat at the solomons, MD trawlerfest and at
annapolis had the same observations and told this to dick vermuelen. in fact,
so did i.
consequently, on the next hull out of the factory, which was late september,
the steepness and shape of the stairs was changed, better hand-holds were
installed, and hefty cherry wood "saloon" style swinging doors with positive
stops were added which eliminate the possibility of anyone from being tossed
down the stairs in rough going.
a big reason for our choosing to buy this maine cat design was dick
vermeulen's willingness to modify or even radically change the interior of the
boat to an owner's requirements ... at the standard cost.