I have a Catalina 380, Hull #380. After 10 years of cruising the Great Lakes, I have decided to install air conditioning on my boat. I am considering a 16,500 BTU unit in the salon area and maybe vent to the V-berth. Anyone have a factory schematic of AC in their owners manual that you could scan and email to me?
Thanks,
Ross Grippi
There is no factory installation or diagrams for A/C. It was a dealer installed item and every one is different. I did a Mainsheet article several issues back that outlines the ducting required for a nice installation where the unit is installed under the settee just forward of the galley sink and ducts to the upper fwd bulkhead with a main outlet for the saloon and a small outlet (close able) to the vberth. Where are you in the Great Lakes?
Tim
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Here’s an email I got from my friend that installed a tankless water heater in his new 445. Needless to say, they love it.
Wes
C387#53
Spring Fever
Marina Del Rey, CA
Guys – I finished installing a tankless water heater in About Time. We tried it out at the Isthmus a few weeks ago and it works great – hot water whenever you want it without having to run the engine or generator.
I installed the new water heater in the aft starboard locker and ran the exhaust hose to the port transom to avoid interference with the rear locker covers. I routed the hot water output of the original heater to the cold input of the new heater so the original heater’s output can still be used until it cools off. The output of the new heater now feeds the hot water lines on the boat. I inserted
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The following posts were responses to requests for advice on boat polishes and waxes:
You might want to read the post below from Rodd Collins. He is known online as MainSail, he’s a former multiple Catalina owner, and he really knows his stuff. I have bought and used the equipment he suggested for the past three years, and the results have been spectacular. When I bought Juniper she had been neglected for a couple of years, and the hull showed it. She now sparkles, and the shine lasts all year.
We simply use Star Brite (correct spelling I believe) marine polish on our hull. When I got my first boat in the 1980’s it showed early signs of needing TLC and it was the recommended solution. In the old days I would put it on with a folded high quality paper
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The following are responses to the question “What are the best charts and cruising guides to the ICW?”
In my view, the best ICW cruising guide is Managing the Waterway published by Mike and Diana Doyle. The minimum essential library of most useful documents I found on our ICW adventures were: that guide, the spiral bound flip chart navcharts published by Kettlewell (which serves as a backup to electronic charts as well as an extremely handy repository for hand added notes at critical points enroute), two Skipper Bob pubs specifically “Anchorages” and “Marinas”. These four books I used daily. Ocasional use included Waterway guides (Midatlantic and Southern versions) and A Cruising Guide to the ICW by Moeller. Actually, the latter was sort of superceded in our use by the Doyle publication which has a more useful format.
All of this is being currently field re-tested by Assn members Doug and
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I chased a problem in the fuel system for a week during our summer trip. The engine would run and then die, sometimes 1 minute some times 5-10.
At first thought it was fuel related because there was a little bit of a biology / chemistry experiment in the bottom of the Racor bowl. Changed filters, twice, but problem continued. Did the fuel line into the jug test. This separates the engine from the fuel system so you can narrow down the issue. Jug trick showed that everything from the Racor to the engine was fine. I inspected the fuel tank and the pickup tube (no screen installed) and they were clean as a whistle.
So I started thinking air leak. Of course by then I had the Racor apart a few times. On a whim I cracked open another Racor filter to get the new gaskets. It turns out
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William Grobinson recently installed an arch on the stern of his C380 to mount solar panels and serve as a davit. Bill put one on his boat using the Atlantic Towers parts.
The following are suggestions for where to store and run your Honda generator:
I use my Honda 2000 in the same way as everyone else, but store it differently. I made a starboard shelf that i attached to the starboard aft locker lid. I replaced the existing hinge screws with longer ones to secure the shelf with no additional holes if it did’t work. I keep it attached with a bicycle cable lock to the back stay and the railing. I run it in the same position. No fumes and less noise inside the boat. It doesn’t budge in rough weather.
This is the generator sitting in place ( taken yesterday from my dink in B.I.) You can see the bicycle cable that holds it in place. The shelf (next email picture) was made from a scrap of starboard that I had. It was not quite wide enough so I
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The Honda 2000 generator has gotten a lot of discussion on the site particularly as it pertains to powering the boat’s AC units. I wrote a previous post describing my early experiences with this and gave mixed reviews. I had no problem powering the stern AC unit but did have difficulties with the 16,000 BTU main unit.
The SmartStart lessens the initial amp draw of the AC unit as it starts up. I give this solution a strong recommendation if you expect the Honda to power a large AC unit.
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Question raised about a Westerbeke that wouldn’t shutdown.
The circuit breaker right on the engine may have tripped.
I and others have reported this situation as having occurred in the past.
Westerbeke reports that the breakerspring can weaken over time. I have a spare, which I picked up to replace that on our ’93 B-38 but could not loosen one screw, 3 years ago, so left the old breaker after shooting it up w/ WD-40.
The spare is on-board when I need it!
Bob 1994 Cat-Morgan 38cc #44 “LaBoo iv
Vancouver, B.C. <bob@laboo.net>
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I just finished installing A/C in my friend’s 380 (I already have it) and this is what I did:
Webasto 16k unit is mounted under the settee just fwd of the galley sink. This is about the only place a 12k or higher unit will fit. I used the existing thru-hull for the icebox pumpout as the intake, teed off the line just above the thru-hull and prior to the anti-siphon U mounted up behind the stove. The line off the tee goes under the galley floor transversely toward the bilge that is hidden under the screwed-down galley flooring. It then follows the bilge pump line fwd into the smaller accessible bilge adjacent to the settee. In that space I installed the water strainer so that if it ever needs to be opened/cleaned the water just spills into the bilge.
After the strainer it goes up through the liner floor
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