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Catalina Stripe Fix

Catalina Stripe Fix
Hal Breliant
11/5/2002
Hull #: 325

Purchase a piece of weather striping with an angled seal. This consists of a roughly 1″ piece of extruded aluminum, with a 3/4″ vinyl insert. [This is sold for door thresholds and usually comes in 30″ and 36″ lengths -ed].

The exact dimensions aren’t critical. I used a section about 10″ long under each of the deck drains. Mount each piece at the underside of the rub rail, tight to the deck/topsides lip. Seal it with silicone. [I suggest cleaning first with a solvent- ed]. I used two small screws to hold it in place while the silicone dries. The water runs off the strip into the bay instead of running back under the rubrail onto the hull. It works!

The photos [see photos 6, 7] show views looking up at the underside of the rub rail.

I just bought an

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Cracked Mast Step

Cracked Mast Step
Ted Sholl
8/1/2002
Hull #: 257

Shortly after taking delivery of “Sound of Silence” hull #257 in July 2000, we noticed some cracks and apparent corrosion around the circumference of the mast step [collar] that sits at the base of the mast and is attached to the cabin roof [and compression post below]. The mast fits into the collar and is held in place by a lip that goes all the way around. There is a drawing of the part on page 26 of the Catalina manual.

There are 8 stainless clevis pins that protrude upward through 10 holes [two holes unused]. These pins, which support halyard turning-blocks, are the source of the dissimilar-metal type corrosion that occurred on our boat and on at least 3 or 4 others I have heard of. The corrosion, in just a few months, caused our mast step to crack completely

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Davits Follow-up

Davits Follow-up
Marcia Ayres
5/1/2002
Hull #: 282

This is a follow-up on the February issue, which included an article by Ed and Sharyn Dahn describing their davits installation, among other things.

They had found that additional bracing was needed, and had their own brace design fabricated. About two weeks ago, I received an emailed picture of another C380, also with Ocean Marine’s Davits installed. As this seemed to show an alternative method of bracing, I thought it would be of interest to all of you who may be considering installing davits. I contacted both Ocean Marine [Mike Thomas], and the owner of the pictured boat, Marcia Ayres, who was nice enough to provide a write-up on their installation.

Warren-

We bought the Ocean Marine Systems Davits after talking to Mike Thomas. He assured us that he had davits that would work on our boat. We discussed our needs as

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Davits

Davits
Ed and Sharyn Dahn
2/1/2002
Hull #: 111

We required davits for our Quicksilver 300 inflatable powered by a 15 HP Merc. After reading the C380 mail on Sailnet we ordered davits from Ocean Engineering. We had the same type of davits from other manufacturers on two previous boats and in the past there was some cutting, welding and a lot of fiddling. We ordered the Ocean Engineering davits specifically for our vintage 380 and also ordered all of the optional braces. Once installed, it became clear that the system as supplied would not work with the weight of our dingy. The stern rail deflected with load and the dingy would bounce around giving one the impression that the stern rail would permanently bend or break. Additional struts were required.

The struts shown below were fabricated from stainless steel flat stock, 1” by ¼”.

New Strut

The lower end

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Double Bow Roller

Double Bow Roller
Tom Lincoln
11/5/2002
Hull #: 205

We’ve been chatting on the Sailnet e-mail list on the desirability of a double-bow roller, particularly for extended cruising, for over a year.

Catalina has recently responded by providing this feature on new C380’s & 390’s. But what to do if your boat doesn’t have this? Following is the first of at least two articles on retrofitting your boat to gain the advantage of two bow rollers. This is from Tom Lincoln, # 205 “Ridge Runner”, who is on quite an extended cruise.

We prepared our C380, Ridge Runner, for cruising and living aboard. For the past year and a half we have cruised the Great Lakes, The East Coast from NY to Florida and next year: The Bahamas. We have done many things to make the boat a better and safer cruiser. One of the most important, and possibly one

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Dinette Table

Dinette Table
Forrest Lott
4/1/2002
Hull #: 90

The May issue included a short description and photo by Forrest Lott of his smaller dinette table. I had a few questions, the answers to which didn’t quite make publication deadline, so here they are.

His picture showed a nice sketch of a sailboat centered in the table top. I wondered at Ted’s artistry; however, he reported the sailboat figure is part of an acrylic dish that his wife found in Walmart! It’s usually under a pile of chips! Oh well, just shows how different perspectives can be.

I also inquired how Forrest swaps old and new table tops easily, and where the unused one is stored. It turns out that they leave the new one in place all the time as it is so convenient. The old one is stored under the vee berth cushions without the mounting flange, which is

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Electrical Power Upgrades, Electrical Energy Independence

Electrical Power Upgrades, Electrical Energy Independence
Earl Poe, Warren Elliott
3/20/2002
Hull #: 140

S/Y Angel’s Wings, hull number 140, spends a great deal of the sailing season anchored in remote coves on a beautiful kentucky lake. Her captain and first mate are people who hate to run the engine which tends to ruin the quiet, summer lifestyle, not to mention scare away the roosting bald eagles, osprey, and deer. Supplemental sources of electricity had to be found. Over the past two (2) seasons, we have added solar panels, a wind generator, and replaced our tired 4D batteries with four (6) volt golf cart batteries. First, we chose to mount two (2) flexible uni-solar model #usf-32 solar panels on top of the canvas dodger (photo 1). We ran the wiring though the coach roof (photo 2), down to the starboard wire chase, and back to a solar regulator mounted behind

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Food Storage

Food Storage
Ed and Sharyn Dahn
2/1/2002
Hull #: 111

The locker to the left of the microwave is a huge space that we believed to be quite unusable without a shelf. A wooden shelf was considered, however, it was felt that even if a ½ inch thick shelf were used it would require some kind of bracing. The thickness of the shelf and bracing would use up too much room. As a result we decided to make it out of 1/8 inch aluminum sheet metal. Careful measurements were made, and the local sheet metal shop sheared a piece for us. The shelf comes to within ¼ inch of the door so that items on the top shelf can not fall down. The shelf is supported on ½ inch aluminum angle stock that was installed along the sides and back. Photo below:

 

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Fuel Tank Retrofit

Fuel Tank Retrofit
Warren Elliott

8/1/2000
Hull #: 44

The following article by Warren Elliott describes replacing the fuel tank.

The original fuel tank actually had a 26gallon fuel capacity as marked on the tank itself. Lift up the aft cabin mattress and port side tank cover to check the capacity of your own boat to be sure what you have! Twenty-six gallons was considered inadequate by both early owners and Catalina so a larger 34 gallon tank was specified in later models. This new tank can be ordered from the factory and retrofitted into the earlier models. This article, kindly submitted by Warren Elliott, explains how to make the retrofit yourself.-Scott

Procedure-

In addition to standard tools, you should have anti-seize or equivalent to seal the fittings. This should be used anywhere dissimilar metals are fastened such as brass and aluminum.

Step I. Configure the new tank. On your

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Gate Blockers for ZSpar Masts

Gate Blockers for ZSpar Masts
Warren Elliott

11/5/2002
Hull #: 44

Those of us with hull numbers up to about 100 have masts made by Z-Spar [now US Spars]. One issue with them consists of a relatively high gate: the opened part of the slot or tunnel where our mainsail slides do their thing.

The gate allows the slides to enter or leave the tunnel for installing/removing our mainsail. With the sail installed, the gate is “closed” via an angled handle that locks into the mast just above the opening thus retaining the slides. Two problems ensue with this configuration: first, the 1st reef cringle cannot be brought down to the boom, as it should be for a proper reef; Catalina authorizing the installation of “jack lines” solved this on my boat.

Second, the height of the sail’s headboard requires climbing the two mast steps to attach/detach the halyard and

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