Maine Cat Owners: A few questions please?

[Chotu]

So I’m considering putting those Eisenglass type windows around my entire deckhouse. Just like the Maine cats.

I’d like to ask some opinions and questions about this solution from people who have experience with them.

1). Are you nervous of the sea smashing through and coming in?

2) How does the water from the roof not make its way behind the windows? How does it stay on the outside?

3). Named storms, very high winds... any worries of them shredding?

4) What are your watertight doors like to keep any flooding out of the hulls?

5) Do you feel safe from crime?

6) How is HVAC with these? Are you able to heat/cool the boat normally?


I have to add 350 lbs of glass to my boat and am considering this solution before doing so.

Thank you very much for any input!

[Chotu]

Hmmm. I’m not trying to trash talk Maine cats here. I’m trying to see how my fears are in real life with this type of system.

Hoping for positive answers.

[Sparx]

On my Maine Cat 38 the eisenglass is only across the aft side of the saloon deck. On the front and sides are glass windows that open on a sliding track. These single pane windows came from a maker of custom house windows. The opening windows provide great ventilation and can be opened just enough to dial in a nice temperature. We strongly prefer this to the more open design on the Maine Cat 30 also used on some of the Maine Cat 41s, which is what you are imagining I think.

In between the opening glass windows are plexiglass panes fixed in place. These panels are about a half inch thicknesses bonded in place with VHB and Dow 795. Additionally there are screw with finishing washers along the edges.

With all that glass the A/C system is challenged. However we get satisfactory results with the eisenglass zipped up and windows closed. It is cooler in the hulls.

[Chotu]

Oooh! Thank you, Brent.

A very useful post with lots of knowledge about Maine Cat options.

I was thinking of leaving the properly working front sliding windows in place on mine and maybe using the Eisenglass for the sides. The sides have been extremely problematic. They are huge and take a lot of solar loading.

Aft we have doors and polycarbonate windows that are fine because they are shaded at all times.

So I was looking at doing just the sides in Eisenglass instead of putting 350lbs of tempered glass on.

[Captain Bill]

I have never owned a Mainecat but had a friend with another friend with a 41. I have an Endeavourcat 44 with a strataglass enclosure. I have done a lot of sailing on my friend's 30, but not much on the 41. Overall I would say the windows are pretty tough. I have buried my bow and taken solid green water on my dodger section. My solid bridge deck is more prone to that than the tramps on the Mainecats though we took a couple of pretty good slaps but water coming up through the tramps and the buoyancy forward tended to break up the stream so it was more like being hit with a fire hose than solid green water. I guess it depends on the design of your boat, but I never felt like something was going to give way.



The answer to your second question is that the tracks that attach the windows to the roof are actually mounted under the edge of the hard top about 3 inches back. This in combination with a flap of sunbrella covering the outside of the zippers. It is not perfectly water tight but it works pretty well. The Mainecats actually have a drain track and drains molded into the hull behind the windows to drain any leakage away. The zippers and flaps reduce the velocity of any water coming through to almost nothing so it tends to run down the zippers and into the drain track. My Endeavourcat doesn't have a drain track but the top of the cabin is crowned enough that water runs down the edges and out the sides.



Item 3, named storms. None of us leave the plastic up for named storms. I have had it up for thunderstorms that broke 70 with no damage, but they were short lived. I doubt it would stand up to hours of 70+. I did get caught once in a storm that blew 40+ for 2 days and saw 48kts for several hours and it did fine. I have had it up in 3 minimal tropical storms without issue.


The water tight doors of the Mainecats have a large step over at the bottom and I never saw any water enter the hulls through them even when the "glass was left open during a thunderstorm at anchor. Again as long at they are closed no high velocity water is penetrating the enclosure.


They won't do anything to make you feel safe from crime. You have to close the solid doors to do that.



As far as HVAC is concerned in the winter you can probably be in shirt sleeves 1 hour after sunrise with everything closed. They don't do much to prevent heat loss after the sun goes down. In warm weather you'd want to keep everything open or you'll cook. AC is going to be tough in the daytime. You'll be OK in the hull spaces but the enclosure will really heat up. Endeavour power cats come with an RV type ac unit on the roof dedicated to the cockpit enclosure as well as two below water cooled units below in the hulls. Shade cloth covers help a lot. They also do a good job of preventing UV damage to the Eisenglass. Neither of the Mainecats were equipped with AC so I can't say how successful air conditioning would be with that much Eisenglass but we have never attempted to AC our cockpit on a sunny day in our Endeavourcat. I would think that at the least it would require a dedicated unit.


One last thing. If you go with Eisenglass make sure you get smiley windows put in the large sections for ventilation. Taking the main sections up and down is a real pain. Also the Eisenglass tends to tighten when it get cold and it is a real pain to reinstall them quickly when you need to.



Hope this helps.

[Chotu]

Bill, that was beautiful!!

Thank you. Helped me tremendously to understand how they are set up and how they are to use in real life situations.

A lot more durable than I’d have expected.

[Sand crab]

The earlier Maine Cats may have been all Eisenglass but now I think they are real glass in the front with the option of Eisenglass or glass for the sides. The back has always been Eisenglass I think.
I'm pretty sure the Maine Cats bridgedeck cockpit have drains because they are designed to get wet. If you go this route then you need to incorporate this detail in also. Plus any furnishings and equipment in your "salon" will have to be weatherproof as well. Is it galley up, that may be an issue? Also check out the Broadblue Rapier designs because they are similar.
I've wondered what an MC design would look like on a big cat. Perhaps we will find out.

Good Luck