Quote:
Originally Posted by daletournier
Another bonus is that Catalina is a big boat building company that is alive and well.
It's easy to get nearly anything for any model through either Catalina it's self or Catalina direct. They freight stuff all over the world.
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^^^^^
This is huge. I've had 2 Pearsons (26 and 30) and a Freedom (35) and by the time I purchased them factories were out of the sailboat business. My
current boat is a Catalina (42) and it is so nice to be able to get replacement
parts quickly.
As for overall quality, I'm not crossing any oceans, but apparently plenty of larger Catalinas have. From what I can tell the structure, fit and finish is comparable to my Pearsons. The Freedom was a different animal with a cored
hull (very nice, unless you get moisture in it) and a hand built
interior. But overall I wouldn't say it was better than the Catalina. I did look at Beneteau/Jeanneau, but preferred the more traditional styling and larger bunks/head on the Catalina.