Quote:
Originally Posted by Kanani
IMHO, it's nowhere for a light-weight vessel like the Catalina.
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Well, sure about the 40th part, but lightweight? Ouch!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kanani
The big problem with light boats like Catalina (and other boats that are really designed for day-sailing)
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Ouch! Ouch! Ow-w-w-w! Lightweights! Daysailers! Holy crap! Man the
guns we're under attack!
Kanani, GordMay, you both mentioned "lightweight" several times in your posts and while I am under no misconception of what production boats like "BeneHunaLinas" are meant for or how they're built, lightweight is not a term that you should apply without looking at the facts, especially with Catalina. I also acknowledge that both of you have a great deal of experience and knowledge, I largely agree with your opinions, and I gain a wealth of knowledge from yours posts. But I really think you are understating the value and usefulness of production boats with the excessive use of the terms "light" and "lightweight" which gives the impression you are implying
cheap, inferior or poorly made.
Using the data from SailCalculatorPro, a link which GordMay kindly provided a while back, I did a couple of comparisons for displacements and
capsize ratios just to illustrate a point:
Displacement:
Passport 456 30200
Catalina 470 Wing/Std 27750
Capsize Ratio:
Passport 456 1.82
Catalina 470 Wing/Std 1.85
Displacement:
C&C 29 MKII 6700
Catalina 28 MkII(TR-wing Keel) 8600
Capsize Ratio:
C&C 29 MKII 1.99
Catalina 28 MkII(TR-wing Keel) 2.02
Catalinas are hardly lightweights or lightly built, and in terms of capsize ratio they measure up well especially the 28 which never was intended to be a
blue water boat.
Our boat (Catalina 28) has a
deck that is 1 1/4" thick - 3/4"
core and 3/8" inch of hand laid glass on either side of the
core, I know this as I spent hours last year grinding out core at all the
deck holes and potting it off with
epoxy. The
hull has no core it is solid hand laid glass. I have found no chopper gun in this boat so far. Our surveyer commented specifically on how strong Catalinas are in his experience. If there's a failing with them it's certainly not the design or the materials, it is the workmanship and detail execution (such as allowing core to be near a deck hole, poorly laid fibreglass on the
bilge frames), something that seems common in any high volume production item. So far any issues from those things have been fixable without much cost ($300 total for
epoxy and glass). The
hardware and
equipment from the
builder is all name brand such as
Lewmar,
Harken,
Raymarine,
Jabsco. No different than any other boat.
It certainly is not correct to describe them as daysailers, we live on our boat for up to 3 weeks at a time, and in a couple of years will be spending a minimum of 4 consecutive months at a time on it. BeneHunaLinas are comfortable boats with a lot of
interior space and comfy cockpits. These boats are very good
for what they were intended to do. We think we might move up to a 34 if we decide to take the ditch south, but we are fully confident we can do it in our 28 without issue, it is a big roomy boat for a 28 footer.
When we looked at boats we started with the traditional Canadian boats, like a C&C's, CS's and Alohas. Interiors are very important to the better half in most relationships, and that makes it important to me. We spend 8 hours a night (well, most nights) in the berth so I want a good one. Our Cat has an aft berth that requires King sized
sheets, and a Vee berth that is 7 feet long. It has tankage for 50 gals of water, 25 waste, 18
fuel. Hardly a daysailer. The only thing that keeps us coming to shore is to fill the
freezer with ice every 4 days or so,
refrigeration is not on our boat (yet?). And by the way, our Cat heaves to just fine, is great in light air and when properly reefed stands up to a blow well.
At that time, a well maintained early 80's C&C29 with an Atomic 4 was offered in Port Credit for a firm asking of $48K, we paid $24.5K for our 1990 28 with an 18 HP
diesel and full
equipment. That is value and for what our intended use is it is the right boat.
I don't know much about Hunters, the styling of the late model ones doesn't
work for me, the earlier ones I thought are decent. I have sailed two Beneteaus in the
Caribbean, a 5 year old 332 and a 7 year old 411 both in
charter that length of time. Neither of these boats were "bendytoys". My wife and I took the 332 out towards
Anegada in mid-November with 12-15' seas from the NE and 3-4' local chop from the south. No issues. Both of these boats were decent sailors, well equipped, well powered both sail and
diesel and very comfortable boats. Since most people spend most of their time not sailing, comfort is a big deal. I have a lot of respect for Beneteaus from my experience with them. Have you checked the entry list for
ARC, I counted 44 Beneteaus.
Not everyone can afford a Passport, or a C&C, or needs one. For many of us, production boats fill our needs. I would love a Passport, or a new C&C. I will never own either, I can't justify spending 300 plus K when I can spend 60K on a early 90s Catalina 34, get what is needed for
what we intend to do and still have another 250K in the bank to top up the cruising
budget. Production boats often
trade seakeeping for comfort, we know this, but it's a reasonable trade-off given
what we intend to do with the boat.
For most people, who never intend to circumnavigate, BeneHunaLinas are very good value and a completely reasonable choice. Those who intend to circumnavigate should think twice about doing it in a production boat, and stay out of the 40s, no question.
I respect the choice of boats you gentlemen make and the boats themselves and I wouldn't use terms that imply they are inferior. I try to be informed and realistic about boats, that's part of what I get from this forum. There's a purpose for every boat and a boat for every purpose, let's just try to find make sure people find the right boat for the right purpose.