offshore in a catalina 30?

[boatman61]

Old thread.... but little changes..
Pick your season and go for it, many boats are written off for offshore sailing but somehow Hardy skippers still manage it.
Its not what others won't do that counts.. it's how risk averse are you..
AKA.. Have you the balls..

[wyb2]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Old thread.... but little changes..

In that spirit...


That Catalina 36 article linked in post 6 has always bugged me a little. I found it not too long after we bought our 80's era C36 (not knowing much about boats at the time).


The idea that a passage to Hawaii would be the first time you discover that water over the deck would find "it's way inside through hatches, dorades, windows, mast member and deck fittings" seems crazy to me. We found that out the first time it rained. Rebuilding hatches and rebedding deck hardware was one of my first projects on our boat. We found that water over the deck was not terribly uncommon in just coastal cruising.


Another issue was that the port jib sheet got caught under the edge of a hatch (twice) and broke it open, in turn letting in much more water. But according to the story this happened on a port tack. Why is there any tension in the upwind jib sheet? I can imagine it flogging around, but it should have enough slack that it can't exert much tension on anything.


One crew member was pretty sick. That's a serious situation that could happen to anyone. Not much to be done about that other than try to get them back to civilization asap, which they did.


The steering failure was the last straw. This is also the only thing in my mind that speaks poorly of the boat. Though they didn't lose the rudder, but a bracket that was easily accessible from inside the boat. Having lots of spare steering parts is probably a good idea for offshore work (though it's understandable that the thing that breaks happens to be the part you don't have). I carried a drill, angle grinder, and some material stock, partly for maintenance, but partly for a situation like this. Given the sick crew member, it's understandable that they didn't spend hours and hours trying creative ideas to fix the steering.


A grain of salt is all I'm saying.

[Hoodsail]

Owned and sailed a 1984 Catalina 27 for a few years in Long Island sound. Fun boat, spacious for length, but lightly built, re: standing rigging and hatches. Looked at Tartans, Sabres, bought a Bristol...the difference in strength and substantial nature of the builds vs the Catalina were stark....most extremely so compared to the Bristol. Have since taken the Bristol off shore to Bermuda and back in "sporty" weather...I never lost confidence in the boat, but would have been very, very nervous in my 27, concerned that something was going to break, whether standing rigging, quadrant steering, or the integrity of the keel bolts....surfing down waves going 14 knots and accidental jibing in 40 knots of wind test both the boat & her crew.