There are several folks making a 12' tarp work yes. With the ARL adjusted down a bit it can go to a 11'6/11'9" apex to apex distance.
If you are coming from a RR (where your suspension hangs out and you are used to using driplines) some people use an 11' tarp and let the lines hang out.
A few of the bigger guys are looking at 13' tarps. (like the 13' winterdream).
A Winterdream with dual pole mods seems to be the preferred full coverage option/favorite thus far.
Exactly how that compares to the Mac Cat I can't say... but the doors will help seal things up.
It all depends on you... I have one customer who uses a 10'x10' square tarp in a diamond pitch and feels coverage is great but I'd say he's an outlier.
Quilts seem very personal and the hardest issue.
Yer friend and mine Johnny Gunz uses a little pick me up at the center of the quilt to the RL to get a seal.
Some of us just put on a regular GE UQ with no modification and use that.
A very small minority seems to have found no solution- just being honest.
I don't have a custom sized quilt to fit it, and one issue I think is that with roughly 8' of 'bed' you can use there are so many different ways to sleep in it that quilts can be an issue.
These bridges are very flat and open. So it's more like cowboy camping than a GE. You are not getting a full wrap up the sides and double coverage like you would with your TQ.
The simple thing to say... they are 'colder' than you are used to. That can be a great thing for my southern customers (though not this winter!). But a bridge is harder to insulate than a GE overall if you are coming from a hammock.
Folks like me who come from the ground... It's not really any different than cowboy camping. I like that actually.
But if you are looking for that bundled in a cocoon of down gathered end goodness... I'll be the first to tell you that is a limitation to this bridge.
You get a big, wide, flat bedspace and multiple sleep positions. That comes with some trade-offs.
Like any other gear.... I'd try the base hammock itself in fair conditions before I went too nuts on it.
So in that regard- you got a 12' tarp with doors and an UQ. That's enough to get you started inside or outside when things warm up a bit.
If all goes well as you go through spring/summer then consider investing in more gear if it's 'the one'.
If not... don't trick it out right off the bat.
The only 'custom' thing you need is a bug net, so I did develop that ASAP.
In testing most of the testers and early adopters eventually found a way to make tarps, UQ's or Pad's work well enough for now so those have been low on the priority list.
80% of the folks are very happy. 15% are good enough and only 5% had a bad enough experience in some way that they gave up. That's pretty good in my book for a new product... so as things grow so will the other options.
Long story short... it didn't become such an issue I needed to stop and fix it. The glaring problem at the moment is simply making the bridge itself in volume.
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