The bridge clearance is the height above the water in the middle of the cat.
Large cats can easily have several feet of clearance to avoid slapping waves,
but with small cats if the designer tries to have reasonable clearance above the
waves, plus standing headroom in the cabin, plus visibility from the helm, you
end up with a "top heavy" design. In truth, the narrow beam of older designs is
a bigger problem.

The Maine Cat 30 is an example of a cat that avoids this problem with an open
bridge and a wide beam. The Iroquois is one that is too narrow, and hence has
been know to flip.

http://www.mecat.com/
http://www.17mo.fsnet.co.uk/Brochure.../Iroquois1.htm



"Scott Vernon" wrote in message
...
huh?

"Jeff Morris" wrote in ...
And since bridge clearance is desirable, the rig is often as high as
on bigger cats.