Compare and Contrast 3 boats

[Captain Mack28]

Hi, I am looking at three boats and want some feed back from all of you. Silverton 40 Aft Cabin, Mainship Sedan 40, and Chris-Craft 381 Catalina. OK Please ask me question if you want to know more about these boats. Now the plan is to buy and live aboard one of these boats. I'm looking for opinions, comments on one or more of these boats, and of course your general good wishes.

[jeremiason]

I taught powerboating classes on a Mainship 40 in San Francisco Bay and didn't like it in rough seas... It was very unstable and challenging to drive in beam seas. The sailing school only used it because their parent company was a Mainship dealer and this was a stock boat.

For the price, I also thought it was a bit cheap on many of its interior components, like latches, lights and hatches.

With that said, they have a big following and many owners will flame me...

I don't have any experience on the Chirscraft or the Silverton...

Good luck!!!

[ranger58sb]

Silverton and Mainship were sister companies; build quality, systems, etc. are similar. Solid Chevrolet/Ford/Dodge category.

There's a Silverton Owners Club online (silvertonclub.com, modest annual fee) and there's Mainship owners group on Yahoo. I know there are several Silverton 40 MY owners in the SOC and they could answer questions.

The Mainship 40 Sedan you mention is not a trawler? If that's the case, it would have been built sometime between '88-1995-ish (plus/minus) during the period where Mainship lost their original focus (likely due to market forces; trawlers weren't so cool then.)

Don't know anything about the CC 381.

-Chris

[rw58ph]

All three are similar, so I would have each boat surveyed and buy the boat in the best condition.

[ranger58sb]

Come to think of it, there's a guy on BE who's been talking about selling his Mainship 40 Sedan gasser. Looks fairly tricked out with stuff and especially electronics.

BoaterEd - 1993 40 Mainship Sedan Bridge for sale (updated)

-Chris