Catalina 30

[Terra Nova]

Someone crossed the Atlantic in a rowboat, too.

To imply that the Catalina 30 is up to crossing oceans is simply irresponsible.

[Pizzazz]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

To imply that the Catalina 30 is up to crossing oceans is simply irresponsible.

It is all a matter of our perception of risk. I said it was possible, with sufficient preparation and understanding of the limitations of the boat. This is a fact as they have crossed. I did not imply the boat was built to the task (what you are implying with the "up to" statement).

Our perception of risk is shaped by the environment we live in. Decades ago people crossed oceans in far less capable boats than a C30 and the survival rate was not bad. The weather has not changed significantly in the last decades while the boats and our understanding of the weather has improved dramatically. The sea has to be respected but humans love challenges and taking calculated risks.

[Cheechako]

Of course you can cross an ocean in a Cat 30 or many other inexpensive production boats. And you may be fine doing it. The question is really if you SHOULD, not can you. They are good little boats, not built to take a beating like some are. It's a matter of risk and tolerance for risk.
If you are a rock climber you can climb a cliff with or without a safety line. Some will make it. For a while. That would be more dangerous than sailing a Cat 30 around the world.

[dcstrng]

Well, I like the structure of Pizzazz's advice -- systems configured and more analytical than adrenaline based; presumably addressing known/perceived vulnerabilities and then how to cope with the rest. My wife and I were chatting last evening about the apparent vulnerability of the spade rudder on our Oday-30... I think for us the solution will be a steering vane of the Hydrovane design (rather than rebuilding the boat), since it functions as a redundant/emergency rudder and we'll need some sort of auto-steering anyway -- then it dawned on me that is the way to approach it... For instance, rigging (older boats need a good inspection anyway), then what does it attach to; in my case the actual chain-plates are hidden from view and easy to ignore... then either the bulkhead or hull for the chainplates, etc., etc. I hang out with the experimental aviation folks quite a lot (one of the other projects in the shop), and the general reactions are similar with pilots/builders when a non-conventional idea is proposed -- but then, assuming any idea is not aerodynamically impossible, one of the engineering types usually pops up and says, well if you're going to do it anyway (or you have little choice in the given situation), "here's the calculations that will help give a larger margin of error..."

Before we got the Oday, I was temporarily stalled in rethinking the Bristol 24 -- been watching/reading Roger Taylor's remake of MingMing II, which may offer some encouragement as to what one can do if truly obsessed -- but with an rather small budget. I wasn't seriously thinking about the junk-rig, but I did sketch up an more robust rig for the B24 using available resources -- a "cutter" inner-forestay backed up with runners that could be tightened in heavy going -- and splitting the lowers so that it had the triangulations that better supports the mast... This approach, I suppose, is close to the "remake" that some here proposed... Actually, compared to the Oday (and many of the vessels of that era), the B24 appears to be a little tank, but the wife thought it too small -- probably correct, but we've talked that I may still pursue it as a solo vessel -- I like that little boat. Anyway, for the two of us, we're thinking through how to make the Oday acceptable...

[Tetepare]

I have had a C30TR for 23 years, and I love the boat. It has taken far more beating than one would think safe; it has been beaten and stressed, yet shows little of it- all these years later I'm impressed that it's held up so well.

That said, I have had to turn back to port because conditions became too much to safely continue, and I've sailed the Pacific on another boat in conditions that I know would have destroyed the C30.

Sometimes luck has a lot to do with survival. Crossing an ocean, which takes weeks, leaves opportunity to hit weather that the C30 is not designed to handle.