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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Racing 65 miles on a Cat 30 - boat review

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Initially Posted - 05/26/2008 : 10:59:41

This weekend I crewed on a very well equipped Catalina 30 standard rig on the Mission Bay to Oceanside (26 miles) Saturday and the Oceanside to San Diego Bay Sunday (39 miles). I was mainly trimming/grinding, and I got the helm about 3 hours Sat and 2 hours Sun. We had excellent winds both days and even had spinnaker runs on each day.

The Catalina 30 is an excellent boat, far superior to our Catalina 25s for most purposes. It is still one of the slowest boats in the fleet, but holds its own pretty well and can be sailed to its rating.

The C30 is much stiffer than my 25. We stood up to a lot of wind without excessive heeling or rounding up. The boat had quite a bit more weather helm than my Cat 25. Lots of other boats in the fleet were rounding up and broaching, we sailed right through the gusts.

We were flying spinnaker with the pole all the way forward and 15 knots of wind well forward of the beam. In these conditions, we had to dump main and sometimes dump spin in the big gusts to keep the boat from "rounding down".

It feels wonderful to be able to walk through the cabin standing up.

There is much more of a load on the sheets (spin and jib). Where I could have pulled them in by hand it was necessary to winch on the Cat 30. The load on the spin guy line was enormous.

Its great to have a real traveller that you can use and that makes a difference.

Super to not have to worry about your outboard when the boat is excessively heeled.

Easy room for 6 or 7 in the cockpit (I believe the Cat 25 is full with 3).

Diesel engine with folding prop started easy, ran smooth and quiet.

Downsides

Much more of a handful to single hand (still doable), roller furling would be a nice help in cruising configuration.

Much more effort to flake the main and jib.

More expensive to own and maintain - by a factor of 3 I would estimate.

Still the slowest boat in the fleet.

Heavy, not nearly as responsive as my C25.

As to the race we were over early in the first race and did not restart so we were DQ and sailed to Oceanside for practice.

We had a fair to poor start in the 2nd race and within 4 hours were bringing up the back of the fleet but we feel we were going to correct out pretty well, I'll let you know.

Indiscipline 1978 FK SR #398

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 05/26/2008 : 11:59:04

So, Jim....... Plusses and minuses..... How do they balance out for you?

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 05/26/2008 : 12:21:24

Charlie (Sterngucker) owner of a C250 has Cat 30 fever. I believe one will be in his future. If you have a family of 4, want to cruise and sometimes race, never trailer, and can support a larger boat financially I believe an older, well maintained, Cat 30 would be hard to beat. I believe it is very easy to sail, well balanced, safe in heavyer weather than the Cat 25, and will take care of you. All the reasons for buying a Cat 25 still apply (Catalina still in business, plenty of spare parts, sails available off the shelf, etc.)

4 people can not vacation aboard a Catalina 25 for any length of time.

For me, I will stay with my C25. Since I plan to retire in 9 years and go cruising, spending money on another boat between now and then is not a good idea (2 daughters starting college also). Also 99% of my sailing is solo, I know the boat, and I believe I can sail it in anything the local ocean will throw at me. I love my Indiscipline III.

I did downsize my plans a little bit. I was planning on getting a boat like a Bayfield 36 for Carribean, cross Atlantic and cruising Europe.

Now I'm thinking maybe a Westsail 32 would be big enough for 2 (meaning that one person is single handing all the time). Also we will be in our 60's. Although I hate running backstays and bowsprits. You can get a pretty nice Westy for $50K.

I'll get some racing time on Catalina 34 and 36 and give reviews on those boats, too.

From experience on the Erickson 38, I know 38 is too big for single handing / older couple or I would be really interested in the Catalina 38 for my cruise. I don't think any other Catalina is suitable for crossing the Atlantic.

Edited by - JimB517 on 05/26/2008 20:00:15

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 05/26/2008 : 14:26:41

Got the win.

Click here for the results sheet.

http://www.ssop.org/RaceCommittee/Results2008/OceanSide-2008-RACE1.HTM

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 05/26/2008 : 18:04:39

In a second look at the results I see now that, not only did we win our class, we were first over all in the entire race on corrected time!

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Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 05/26/2008 : 18:20:43

sweet

The Catalina 30 fleet at our club has about a dozen boats in it. They are a favored "thunder wagon" in our high wind; they carry sail well. They are great at the dock, it is easy to entertain on one. They fit on a dual axle trailer.

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 05/26/2008 : 19:57:34

The wind went light in the middle of the race and built late, filling in from behind, favoring the later (slower) boats. We averaged over 6 knots and ran the last 3 hours in the 7s.

Edited by - on

redviking
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 05/27/2008 : 08:33:41

Quote: "I know 38 is too big for single handing / older couple or I would be really interested in the Catalina 38 for my cruise. I don't think any other Catalina is suitable for crossing the Atlantic."

One - 38 feet is not hard to single hand - joshua slocum had a bigger boat. It's all about how it is set up. I solo our C&C 39 routinely and I have friends soloing much bigger boats who are in their late 60's.

Most "big" boats have crappy equipment. Tiny winches and not very many of them. Tiny standing rigging, etc. I would not buy a Catalina to cross oceans with anymore than I would buy a Hunter, a BendyToy or a Jeaneau. Simply put, the rigging and systems are just not up to task. Sure the Catalina people show big boats in their ads sailing somewhere, but they never show them bouncing around in big seas and you don't hear of them going anywhere. Note: Patrick Childress went around the world on a C27 and he is NOT on a Catalina today.

Sorry Catalina. You did build a few Sparkman Stevens designs that I have seen which may be seaworthy for blue water work. But your "bleach bottle" approach as of late leaves little to be desired. Coastal cruisers... Note: Catalina isn't trying to build tougher boats than Island Packet, Hylas, Amel, Pacific Seacraft, Morris, Shannon, etc. They are building "dreams" as in their tag line "get your dreams worth." Beneteau uses "There's always something exceptional in a Beneteau." Note they don't say there is always something exceptional ON a Beneteau. Like beefy rigging, real winches, a windlass in most cases, etc... They are built to a price point - not a quality point.

Then there are design flaws. These "bleach bottles" have 30 percent ballast to displacement ratios. Their high profile makes them nice floating condos, but wait til you have to ride out a storm in one. Gotta pilot berth with lee cloths so the Captain can catch a few winks and be accessible? no... Some of the newer models have huge beds, ANGLED - uh huh, where are you going to sleep underway?

Sten

DPO C25 #3220 "Zephyr", SR, FK
SV Lysistrata - C&C 39 - Solomons Island MD

Edited by - on

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5902 Posts

Response Posted - 05/27/2008 : 09:23:28

Good job Jim! If you won on handicap, that means you guys sailed the C30 better than it's rating, and that's one of the things I like about a Catalina. They're usually easy to sail better than their rating. Why? Because, IMHO, they're usually underrated.

At all the major boat shows, Catalina always has a display with photos of Catalinas that have made long passages, and as I recall, there are at least 2-3 that have circumnavigated. Catalina wouldn't be my first choice for an offshore boat, but I don't recall ever hearing of one that suffered a structural failure, other than due to a collision. There's an article that circulates the net periodically about a 36 that had a bad cruise to Hawaii, but that was an old boat suffering from deferred maintenance, and the problems were mostly due to the deferred maintenance and failure of bolt-on equipment. Our friend Oscar sailed his 42 mostly offshore back and forth between the Chesapeake and Florida several times and she took good care of him, so I think Catalinas are generally undeserving of many of their criticisms. I agree with some of Sten's comments, but the boats can generally take a beating and remain structurally intact without losing their rigs.

I also agree with Sten that it isn't difficult to singlehand a big boat. I normally singlehand my 35, and, at age 65 could singlehand a 45 and probably more, depending on how it's rigged. When you don't have help, you learn how to put it in and out of a slip by yourself, and how to handle the sails, lower and raise the anchor or two anchors, and pick up a mooring. Sometimes it's a struggle, simply because you're doing it by yourself, but you just have to stick with it until it's done.

Sten, I'm posting this from the Lusby Public Library, about 2-3 miles north of Solomon's Island, and would enjoy meeting you guys sometime. I usually race at Solomon's Island on Wednesdays and around Annapolis on weekends, but am free almost any other time, either for a cold beer or dinner. There are some good restaurants in the area.

Edited by - on

redviking
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 05/27/2008 : 11:05:04

Quote: "Sten, I'm posting this from the Lusby Public Library, about 2-3 miles north of Solomon's Island, and would enjoy meeting you guys sometime. I usually race at Solomon's Island on Wednesdays and around Annapolis on weekends, but am free almost any other time, either for a cold beer or dinner. There are some good restaurants in the area."

We are taking a lay day and are anchored up on Back Creek. We'll head to Annapolis in the AM. We'll either be in the anchorage there or on a city ball. So, yeah - coldies are always a good thing!

I'll send you an email...

From there we will either go up the Chester river or stay on the right side and anchor in Worton Creek. Lysistrata's previous owners are up in there and I wanna find out where he put the watermaker!

sten

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 05/27/2008 : 18:25:17

I'm sure I could handle single handing the larger boat. I am not sure I want to do the amount of physical labor required.

Get the smallest boat that will do the job - that's my motto. As opposed to the largest you can afford (to buy not necessairly maintain, as is far to often the case.)

Edited by - on

sterngucker
Navigator

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USA
169 Posts

Response Posted - 05/29/2008 : 01:58:49

Jim,
Congratulations to TEAM SOJOURN on your first place finish!!! We were a little late getting out on the water and had to do a few tacks to head west from the Mission Bay jetty as the wind was out of the WNW. What are the odds that we almost crossed your path??? You guys looked good out on the course.

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