Our 2004 387 was delivered with an athwartship aft bed. As advertised it was very long and my wife Linda and I fit in it quite well lengthwise. I am 6 ft 4 inches tall (or long depending if I’m vertical or horizontal) and had plenty of room. The issue of my wife and I using the head in the middle of the night caused us to think about changing the orientation of the bed to a centerline configuration.
Our boat is in a slip in Marina Del Rey, California, with access to the folks still in this area from the former Catalina factory. We started talking to our rigger, who does most of the commissioning of new Catalina’s at our dock. We talked about how we could extend the platform so we could fit in the bed back to front. We also needed our Webasto forced air heater vents
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While my mainsail is at the sail makers for minor repairs we were discussing adding a third Dutchman line. As with many of the C380’s my boat came with only two Dutchman lines which often results in the sail flopping off the boom at outer end. Here are some highlights of our discussion and I am hoping for guidance of what has worked with others.
1. First we discussed just adding a third Dutchman line behind the current after line. At first the sail maker thought that was a good and economical solution. I tend to agree but want to ask if others have done that or if I will be unhappy. Another advantage of this is that I only need to make one modification to the sail cover which is in great shape.
2. The best solution that is more than I want to spend is to move both
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We purchased a new main last year from Mack Sails in Florida and decided to switch from Dutchman to Mack Pack w/ lazy jacks. Very happy with decision. After sail drops into Mack Pack (bag) it still requires some adjustment but once that is done we just zip up the pack and don’t have to deal with putting on a sail cover. Mack Pack is superior to other such systems. Sail and Pack are independent of each other so no mods to sail needed. Also pack is open at bottom (2 halves clip together under bolt rope of main ) so it does not collect water. We installed it ourselves with no difficulty. .
Stefan Leader
Diva II
380 # 327 Alexandria VA
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We are considering installing a bow thruster to our 387 and are looking for suggestions on brand, horse power and recommendation on a reliable marina that will do a good job.
Thanks in advance
Isi and LaMae
S/V Windseeker II
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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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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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Well it’s been in the idea stage for quite a while. The necessity of the canvas dodger and bimini needing to be replaced has primed the need to build a hard dodger and hard bimini from a Starboard type material called Seaboard. I am planning on spending extended time on Water Racket as I transition into part time retirement. We want a full enclosure as we’ll be spending more time in our cockpit than below. I designed and built these units with the input of Dan Wood at Canvas Creations in Annapolis. He wanted to replace his fiberglass hard dodgers with a more cost effective material and that’s where I came in. I’ve posted the initial mounting photos and Dan will be finishing the canvas work in the near future. I’ve designed and manufacture Keder Tracks from the Seaboard material and hot air welded it to the tops with
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Our repair project following Hurricane Sandy has moved well into a major refit and refurbishment. We have just bought the Raymarine e95 display and standard digital radar, and are waiting on the rebate of an i70 multifunction display. I’m finding the connection/hook-up directions to be fairly poor, but it might just be me. The question is whether or not the old autohelm, original with the boat, will connect and is even worth connecting? I traced the wiring around and can find no “Corepack”, which comes with the more recent vintage Raymarines (e.g.. X10).
Any thoughts on the lifetime of these autohelms? The new units are around $3500 all in, which is a lot for our budget.
Tom, Alchemy
1998 C380, #120
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Tom, I have an e125 and an X10 autohelm. The older pilots and ST60 instruments can be networked to the e series only through Seatalk NG as
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