Category Archives: Customizations

2008, Customizations, Sailing

“Noodles” Stop Wave Slapping

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“Noodles” Stop Wave Slapping
Bill Weaver
May, 2008
Hull #: C380 # 54

 My wife and I have sailed our C380 on Lake Michigan since it was delivered to us new in early 1997. Since I retired two years ago, we’ve logged about 1,000 miles over several weeks each of the two summers.

There are few things that annoy us about our C380, the main one being water slapping noise in the stern cabin. It seems that we too often end up with an aft wind, causing small ripplets or larger waves to slap against the hull. We’ve solved this problem by using swimming “noodles”. We string two noodles onto a line and secure it to the stern cleats or to the stern rail. One seems to work well if there are only small ripplets; otherwise two will usually do the trick. The photo shows our boat after a rough

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2008, Customizations, Mainsheet, Repair/Replace/Maintain

Electric Head Upgrade for C380

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Electric Head Upgrade for C380
Steve Riddle
May, 2008
Hull #: C-380 (#194)

You know the drill. The pump on the old manual head starts working hard. So you pour in a little head lube and hope to get by for a few more weeks, months, or even years. Finally, the inevitable rebuild can not be put off any longer. Then you are off to the trusty marine store only to find the rebuild kit costs almost as much as a new head! I never did care for the manual head but it was ok for occasional use. We also had one for many years on our previous C-34, but the units are small and not intuitively obvious for your guests to operate. Plus the rotten egg smell from stagnant sea water after it sits idle for a summer week is awful.

The advantages of a nice, big, fresh-water electric

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2008, Air Conditioning, Customizations, Mainsheet, Repair/Replace/Maintain

Easy Air Conditioning

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Easy Air Conditioning
Warren Elliott

May, 2008 Hull #: C380 #44

 A fair number of our C380/387/390 boats have air conditioning which was installed either as an option by Catalina, or by the Catalina dealer who was the commissioning agent. And, per our lively Sailnet email chat group , some Captains have put in A/C themselves. Of course, most of these boats are located in the south and southwest, where summer heat can be oppressive, requiring some form of relief.

On the other hand, those of us in northern climes have more of a choi ce: we could do nothing, possibly suffering a bit for those few really hot days, or we might go “full up” with an A/C system [usually two unit totaling over 20,000 BTU], perhaps suffering only pocketbook distress. Besides requiring at least a few “big bo at-bucks”, these units take considerable space which might otherwise be

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2008, Customizations, Dinghy Davits, Mainsheet

Dinghies and Davits Go Together

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Dinghies and Davits Go Together
Bob Bierly
February, 2008 Hull #: C380 #255

Recently, on the C380 sailnet site there have been several sessions devoted to the proper choice of dinghy and motor and the pros and cons of mounting davits for dinghy transport and storage. Simply put, like many other aspects of outfitting your C380, there is no perfect universal solution. What may be useful to cruisers are the following thoughts.

Dinghies and Motors:

The real issue with a dinghy and its motor is to identify their primary purpose.

CASE 1

If, for example, you plan to cruise away from home, perhaps for lengthy stays (couple of weeks, months, even years), consider that your dinghy will be your basic local transportation. In this situation, I recommend that you (1) buy the largest, most stable dinghy (10 to11 feet) you can handle and, (2) obtain a big, reliable motor to

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2008, Customizations, Dinghy Davits, Mainsheet, Repair/Replace/Maintain, Stainless

Caution- Davit Stress Corrosion

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Caution- Davit Stress Corrosion
Richard Herbst
February, 2008 Hull #: C380 #93

According to Keith at Kato Marine (katomarine.com, 410-269-1218), earlier models of their davits were built using 304 stainless steel (including early 1998 when my boat, hull #93, was built). If they are continually stress-loaded (i.e., carry the dinghy all the time on the davits) while used in the tropics or similar climate, they may develop stress corrosion (i.e., cracking) of welded joints. If stress corrosion is evident, his advice is to have a qualified welder re-weld it and, in addition, add a gusset (about 1-inch triangular piece of filler metal) on each side of the broken weld. The gussets provide extra insurance against joint failure; it is impossible to know what is going inside the tubes by way of additional deterioration. For the same reason, Kato also suggested not drilling holes in the davits [eg: for wiring].

My

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2008, Customizations, Dinghy Davits

Davits Alternative – Weaver Davits

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Davits Alternative
Craig Spear

February, 2008 Hull #: C-380 #273

A much simpler and much less expensive alternative are “Weaver” davits, whose description is included here to present a more complete picture of dingy storage. For a much more detailed description, refer to our section in the November 2005 Mainsheet; that article is also included on our Tech CD. –Warren

I installed the eyes that attach to the side of my inflatable (RIB). The other half of the system is a pair of hooks that are mounted on the stern of my C380, just below the swim platform. To raise the dingy, first maneuver it to attach the two eyes on the dink to the hooks; then pull a line attached to the far side of the dingy, rotating it into the vertical plane with the bow and stern athwartships. (See Davits photo).

The advantages include much less weight

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2007, Customizations, Mainsheet

Companionway Doors

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Companionway Doors
Warren Elliott

November, 2007 Hull #: C380 #44

As many of our stalwart Sailnet chat group members will recall, a few months ago we got together a group buy of doors for our boat’s companionway. These particular units are made by Zarcor [.com], a frequent Mainsheet advertiser. They are fabricated out of starboard, a white plastic. While the well-known alternative doors are made from teak [Glebe Creek, sold by Cruising Concepts, also a Mainsheet advertiser] and look very nice, I, and presumably all of our group buyers, do not want to deal with the upkeep required by their wood construction.

So, we purchased and installed the Zarcor version, which have been in place now about a month. I thought some readers would be interested in how the installed doors look on a C380, [specifically mine], which you can see in the two accompanying photos.

Installation is quite simple.

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2007, Customizations, Drains

Drain for Swim Platform

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DRAIN FOR SWIM PLATFORM
Warren Elliott
Feb, 2007 Hull #: 44

Are you tired of that small pool of often dirty water that accumulates on the swim  platform of your otherwise beautiful boat?? Well, help is at hand!!
I was surprised– almost shocked– to recently learn, via our Sailnet email  discussion group, that many of our fleet do not have this simple, worthwhile device  which eliminates water accumulations on the swim platform!!. How can this be?? It’s  now taken at least two, maybe three happy hours for this info to sink into my brain and  for me to do something about it! So you know that the value/$ of this upgrade must be  high: at least semi-infinite!! In other words, this clearly worthwhile upgrade can be done  for almost nothing!!

Picture, if you will, a brass tube, maybe 3/8″ diameter and 2″ long, flared at one  end. What could be

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2007, Drains, Mainsheet, Repair/Replace/Maintain, Water

Swim Platform Drain

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Swim Platform Drain
Warren Elliott
5/24/07
Hull #: C380 #44

Install Instructions

1- Decide on approx placement of drain tube. Note from photo that location depends on how/where autopilot is installed. For those with no autopilot, locate drain tube in center [port/stb] and as close to vertical step as possible [but be aware of size of your electric drill]. Mine is about 7/8″ aft of “riser”.

 

2- Autopilot drive mechanism is usually installed offset, so you will want to have drain tube on opposite side in order to be as close to center as possible

3- Release wheel [so that rudder is easy to turn from below], and climb down into lazarette on the side opposite autopilot. Look over area, noting existing cockpit drain hose[s], and where you’ll cut into one and insert T for platform drain. Note also how autopilot mechanism moves laterally as rudder is turned. Find

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2007, Customizations, Electronics, Mainsheet, Repair/Replace/Maintain

SSB Radio Installation

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SSB Radio Installation
Steve Dublin
August, 2007
Hull #: C380 #84

Editor’s Introduction– As I spent many of my younger years as an active radio amateur [ham] and virtually all of my work life in antenna & microwave engineering, I feel some degree of justification for the comments you’ll see sprinkled throughout the article below [apologies to author: Steve Dublin]; I hope they’re helpful– that’s the intent!

One general comment by way of clarifying some terms. The two popular versions of transceivers used by sailors are “Marine” and “Ham” types; they are both capable of SSB transmissions. Their functional distinction is principally that of frequency of operation. Marine SSB units are limited to certain frequencies as dictated by the FCC.

Ham units were limited to other frequencies, called Ham bands, but newer Ham transceivers are capable of operation on both marine and Ham frequencies, so there’s a distinct advantage for

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