Raising the Roof? (adding headroom to an older Cat)

[mark424x]

I wonder of the structural gurus could give me any advice on the relative complexity/cost/advisability of trying to add more headroom to the deckhouse of an older catamaran. Late 80's early 90's production cats seem to have at most 6'1" headroom in the main saloon. I'm 6'4 in bare feet looking for a liveaboard/cruiser at reasonable cost. Other than cost reasons, there are some boats like the 80's Catanas that are significantly lighter/faster than the modern condo-marans. Also going back further buys you more water line for the same $.

Some designs have more headroom in the hulls, esp the down galley, so I'm hoping that won't be an issue.

It seems that one could either cut around the whole house, raise it 5", glass over the gap(with structural elements were required) and smooth out the transition to the deck. Alternatively, you could cut off just the roof at the top and add the extension there. If possible, I would think the former is the preferred method as the sloping sides would also be higher. I believe there will be enough room without interfering with the boom on most of these boats. It will reduce the space between the roof and bimini though.

This is certainly a case where I don't know what I don't know. Any thoughts and guidance would be very much appreciated. If you could hazard a guess on the ballpark cost to have a yard do it, that would be helpful.

Mark


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Marina del Rey, CA