Bridgedeck clearance on tiki 30 and 38

hi flyfish I have measured the bridge deck on my TIKI 30 and it is a little over 600 mill. My TIKI 30 is the pod version and this would make it a bit heavier than the open bridge deck version. But in rough seas it very rarely slams. the outboar motor support that angles down at the back slaps sometimes but nothing to worry about Regards, rob sewell.

My Tiki 30 has about 18" I lowered the cockpit floor 1 3/4" for more head room under the bimini. We will occasionally get some slamming but it is when we are going fast and there are good size waves. Not too much of a bother really. David

Thanks for the replies Rob and David. There are many other issues that will lead me to a decision between the two designs, not the least of which is the huge difference in construction time. I noticed David that you've posted on cat forums about your ideas for a Tiki 36 - it sounds like a great concept with extra performance and other nice features (including more bridgedeck clearance). Did James and Hanneke give any ideas whether this would translate into home building plans or will it only stay a production type cat from your building sheds?

Hanneke and I have discussed the T36 several times. She thinks that maybe a T34 would be nice. At this point there are no plans available. That could change in the future.

Bill, truly bridgedeck clearance is not exactly a new concept in multihull design yet so rarely seen. No Wharram is designed with so little clearance as David modified his boat to, except the smallest ones. I found it hard to believe that there was so little clearance under the t30 as designed so looked on the study plans and sure enough only some 20 inches under the suspended cockpit, which is most of the bridgedeck area. Roughly the same as under flyspeck tahiti wayfarer's bridge decking. The bright side is it goes to show JWD experiments with everything. For comparison, my Child, as she lies with live-aboard cruiser loading, has 29" under the bottom of the lowest x-beams and 35" under the decking.

Hi Bill, For what it's worth, I have a very much modified pod & cockpit on my Pahi 42, eg a pull out sofa bed in the pod! and a 12 square metre cockpit, and so did lots of research on bridge deck clearance. Fortunately Wharrams have very little below decks forward of the centre crossbeam which is the most vulnerable slamming area. Most cruising designers seem to consider 700 - 800 mm to be a realistic figure to minimise (not avoid!) slamming (much like Glenn's figures). I have made mine 800 mm. If you Google "bridgedeck clearance catamarans" you get a lot of info. Cheers Katfish

On our T30 we also made the fwd end of the cockpit angled at 45 degrees to ease the waves a bit. it does slam occasionally is not a big issue at all. it really only happens when we are driving the boat hard.