Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
Unfortunately a lot of the wiring for the Cat 25 was placed in the space between the ceiling and the outer shell so it is essentially impossible to get to. When I rewired Elan, I found that you can tuck the wires just above the teak trim strip that runs the whole length of the boat just below the hull to deck joint on the port side. Then pop out into the area behind the breaker box and hook them up again, abandoning the originals. Use stranded wire and good sealing connectors or connectors and shrink seal and each joint. I would use 14 gauge wire for this long of a run.
I am going to bring the boat home so I can work on it in my back yard during these cold days and will return to the shipyard when it is warm enough to paint and do fiberglass repair. Besides I will get to sail it for the first time on the way home (and troll for Stripers too).
Like Steve, I abandoned the original bow wiring. I also abandoned the crap factory lights on the old boat and installed a new halogen bow light on the pulpit. My new wiring runs through the anchor locker, along the teak trim in the V berth, into the head area, then under the setees to the wiring panel.
The anchor chain crushed the first wiring job I did causing a short. The wiring in the anchor locker is now run inside a PVC conduit sealed with silicon.
I have new bow lights, new stern light and new steaming light, all halogen. Brighter, less power than the original 1978.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by JimB517</i> <br /> I also abandoned the crap factory lights on the old boat and installed a new halogen bow light on the pulpit. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
What did you do with the old lights? Cover or fiberglass over them? Abandon them?
Removing the lenses and glassing would be a good idea. However the lenses just lead into the anchor locker. The anchor locker is isolated from the boat. The anchor locker drains overboard. Flooding the anchor locker is not something to worry about (too much).
In about 10,000 miles of sailing my Catalina 25, sometimes in quite rough, offshore conditions, I've only put the bow under twice. And I have a heavy bow with 50 feet of 5/16 chain and a 13 lb anchor, plus 6 bags of sails in the V berth.
Probably happens more often on Lake Erie!
A bit of a thread hijack, but who has taken green water over the bow? I'm not talking spray but had the bow well submerged!
Who has had a large amount of water in the cockpit - from being pooped or heeled over so far a wave breaks in? I've never had this.
You are right about Lake Erie - something about the western basin only being about 35 ft deep and the eastern basin 70 - 140. Combine the depth with a few hundred miles of fetch, and it gets pretty short and steep. I bury the bow several times a year, usually when coming out of the Portage River into a stiff, northeast wind. I've only buried the bow once in the open lake, and one time a combination of a shift, gust, and errant wave put me over in the 80ยบ range - I was standing on the normally vertical port side of the cockpit footwell and it got pretty wet.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.