Quote:
Originally Posted by gpshephe
I'm curious what anyone knows what changes would be required to get a boat ( like the Cat )ready to handle ocean crossings
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At a minimum:
1) Adding
fuel tanks. I believe the
Catalina 38 holds 35 gallons of fuel stock. Assuming 1/2 gph
consumption @ 6 knots cruising, thats only a range of 420 nautical miles under
power. You'll want 100 gallons of fuel or more...and then jerry jugs in case you need more.
2) Adding
water tanks. Stock, the
Catalina 38 has only 35 gallons of water capacity. That is unacceptable for such a boat. Assuming 1 gpd per crew and a 45 day crossing with a crew of 3, you should have *AT LEAST* 135 gallons of water in tanks. You will be taking sponge baths and not smelling great with this limited amount of water supply. Do *NOT* count on a
watermaker working. If you have a
watermaker, great...but then where will you power it from if you only have 35 gallons of
diesel fuel?
Generator wont be able to run too long with that little fuel!!!
3) I'd make sure all the standing
rigging was inspected and if there is *ANY* wear/tear...replace it with upsized wire. I'd be inspecting those chainplates and knees and beefing them up accordingly.
4) If you have in-mast
furling on this boat...consider dumping it and going with a traditional lazy jack sail. Offshore is no-where good to deal with a main jammed halfway out
5) Strongly would consider adding a baby-stay (if the foredeck can handle it) to fly a storm sail.
6) Make sure your aft and mid-ships
cleats are strongly supported with
backing plates or reinforced in order to trail a storm
anchor or
drogue. Buy a
drogue if you dont have one
7) Upgrade your
lifelines from the crappy stock ones (aka knee-clippers) and supplement by putting lifeline netting
8) VERY IMPORTANT - inspect living areas for handholds. I dont know the
interior of the Catalina 38, but if its anything like most production boats (even racer/cruisers), there will be a decided lack of handholds. Install with proper backing as necessary.
9) Make sure you have an area that can be set up with a lee cloth for a proper sea berth. Aft and forward cabins are usually too large and have too much motion while underway. Ideally, you would have a 5-6 foot length straigth settee with anchorable points at both ends to attach a lee cloth to
10) Check all your thru-hulls and add
backing plates. Most production builders go
cheap on this step...god knows why, only a few extra hundred bucks when they're doing the
installation but thousands to upgrade after the fact
11) You probably have an
autopilot, but you'll also want to have some non-electrical
self steering system.
Monitor wind-vanes are the gold standard...and priced accordingly. From what I
recall, C38s have a traditional transom, not the sugar-scoop more modern boats have. This will make the wind-vane
installation easier actually as there is less supporting metalwork required to make it fit
12) Beyond wind-vane, you'll likely have to upgrade your auto-pilot. If you have a
wheel pilot...dump it on ebay and get a direct drive unit mounted to the quadrant below.
13)
Electronics for offshore...make sure you have at a minimum a
Radar. . A top tier
VHF that is networked to your
GPS for
DSC calling. Make sure that prior to going offshore, you've gotten your HAM
license and are well versed in HF communication. You'll want to have an
SSB for long range communication....with associated grounding plates and copper for proper antennae tuning. At a bare bones minimum, you'll want to have a good
SSB capable of receiving long range
weather forecasts and some way of downloading the grib data to your
laptop. You'll be outside of traditional weather forecasting range...so this is what will tell you if you're in trouble or not.
AIS would be good as well...in another year or two I would say that this will become required for offshore like the
radar.
14) Some kind of power generation.
Solar is best, IMHO.
Wind as a backup/backstop.
Generator as a backup.
Honda EU2000 is a good
cheap way to keep
batteries topped up. You'll be sucking down amps between
autopilot and likely
refrigeration.
***edit*** forgot a couple key things
15) This likely should be much higher on the list. In fact, it would be one of the first things I do.
BILGE PUMPS!!! Your stock
bilge pump is probably very undersized. Install at least 2 automatic
bilge pumps such that they trigger automatically at varying water levels. One should trigger as soon as there are a few inches of water in the bilge. The second should trigger when there is even more water in the
cabin. When
wiring them, make sure your
battery bank can handle the amperage draw of 2 of these pumps going simultaneiously. Theoretically, the second should turn on after you power up the
engine alleviating the amperage draw (its your "Oh $hit"
pump that will power on when things really go bad) but still have the amps. Lastly, add a 3rd manual
bilge pump that can be operated remotely
16) Make sure your
cockpit can drain effectively and quickly. Considering upgrading the scuppers and/or adding more drainage. Consider also adding your manual bilge
pump controls in the cockpit itself.
17) Consider adding several tether points in the cockpit that are STRONGLY backed up with plates.