Rigging Page 

 

Important: The opinions expressed here are those of the individual contributors to these pages, and not those of the Catalina 380 International Association or Catalina Yachts, Inc. 

It is also important to note the hull number of the boat referenced in the comments by the owners.  Catalina is continually making changes to the design of the boats. Changes that were made on an older or newer boat by an owner may not be needed on your boat.

Gate Blockers for ZSpar Masts
Submitted by: Warren Elliott #44 11-5-02
Subject:  Rigging

Those of us with hull numbers up to about 100 have masts made by Z-Spar [now US Spars].  One issue with them consists of a relatively high gate: the opened part of the slot or tunnel where our mainsail slides do their thing.  The gate allows the slides to enter or leave the tunnel for installing/removing our mainsail.  With the sail installed, the gate is "closed" via an angled handle that locks into the mast just above the opening thus retaining the slides.

Two problems ensue with this configuration: first, the 1st reef cringle cannot be brought down to the boom, as it should be for a proper reef; Catalina authorizing the installation of "jack lines" solved this on my boat. 

Second, the height of the sail's headboard requires climbing the two mast steps to attach/detach the halyard and to install/remove the sail cover.  I found installing the cover while on the upper step to be particularly troublesome, to the point of being dangerous.  So, how to overcome this one? A pair of "gate blockers" should do the trick. These are two plates that are attached to the mast, covering the widened part of the gate, but leaving the narrow slot open so that sail slides can traverse the area, thus allowing the stack of slides to sit at the very bottom of the slot.  This will also solve the reefing problem, if you haven't already taken care of it.

Three of us with early C380's have tried a few versions supplied by US Spars.  We are now ready to recommend one of these, which consist of two identical SS plates, each with an angled and straight mounting-screw slots.  This arrangement allows the plates to be moved out of the way for installing/uninstalling your mainsail without removing any screws or plates [which means not losing them overboard]. Installation includes drilling and tapping your mast.  Be careful that you drill in no further than necessary: about 3/8 - 1/2".

I had to make two modifications to the plates: first, both sides need to be bent slightly--the outboard side to conform to mast shape [not a necessity], and the inboard to be inside the gate. Second, the upper & lower edges near the gate were ground/tapered to minimize the tendency for sail slides to hang-up as they moved past the plate edges.

If you're interested, please contact Julian Crisp at US Spars: tel 386 462-3760; email Julian@usspars.com. Julian will supply the gate blockers with the two modifications in place.  Price is about $20; refer to p/n 6263.  The plates come with M6x15 SS screws; I used 1/4-20 [1/2" long] instead since I had this tap. Julian recommends use of SS rivetable inserts threaded for your mounting bolts, because the mast is not very thick in this area, and the holes/threads may wear after a number of tightening/loosening cycles.  He does not have any inserts, and I did not look for them, as the holes seem to have at least the required minimum of three threads. This suggests use of finer-thread bolts [1/4-28], if you can find them.  I also suggest use of "Antiseize" or equivalent on the threads, and perhaps under the plates, to minimize dissimilar metal corrosion.

 

 

Cracked Mast Step
Submitted by: Ted Sholl #257 8-1-02
Subject:  Rigging

Shortly after taking delivery of “Sound of Silence” hull #257 in July 2000, we noticed some cracks and apparent corrosion around the circumference of the mast step [collar] that sits at the base of the mast and is attached to the cabin roof [and compression post below]. The mast fits into the collar and is held in place by a lip that goes all the way around. There is a drawing of the part on page 26 of the Catalina manual.

There are 8 stainless clevis pins that protrude upward through 10 holes [two holes unused]. These pins, which support halyard turning-blocks, are the source of the dissimilar-metal type corrosion that occurred on our boat and on at least 3 or 4 others I have heard of. The corrosion, in just a few months, caused our mast step to crack completely through aft of the forward-most clevis pin. Most of the other pins on our boat have halyards attached, but the one that cracked through was not being used. It would probably be used for a spinnaker. The crack was clearly visible and ran completely through the hole from one side to another. Also visible was extensive corrosion—white-looking stuff. Catalina's mast supplier, Charleston Spar, said later that the corrosion visible to the naked eye is just a small percent of what is actually going on inside.

The boats affected by the problem would be after hull# 100 or so. Earlier boats had the ZSpar mast set up and evidently did not have the problem. Charleston Spar took over around hull #100 (along with the 10 inch drop in boom height); their original design of the mast collar had nuts that protruded below the hole for each clevis pin. Later they changed from the nuts, using instead a pin with a lip around the bottom of the pin (like a bullet). Evidently the protruding metal of the clevis pins is where the corrosion takes place, and although Charleston Spars redesigned the pins once, it still didn’t solve the problem. In addition to all this, there is a thin teflon-like gasket (like a head gasket) that fits between the cabin sole plate and the mast step. This part is not supplied by Charleston but by Catalina as a part of their installation. In my opinion, this gasket is way too thin and allows the steel from the clevis pins to almost touch the metal of the cabin sole.

After a period of inaction, complicated by the fact that we were living in Florida, the boat was in San Diego, we only got to the boat once or twice a year and at first no one was interested in taking responsibility for fixing the problem. Several months passed and the boat went out of warranty. Since I was concerned that it could be a safety of sailing item, I refused to sail the boat in that condition and finally let Catalina know that I wanted some action. Mr. Butler responded nicely and authorized the repairs be done in a local yard courtesy of Catalina. He also assured me that it was perfectly safe to sail the boat in this condition and, after seeing the step disassembled, I agreed with him. The only danger would be if you had a halyard attached to a pin that might be damaged so badly by corrosion that it could give way under load and have a halyard let go.

By the way, the boats most likely affected would be salt water boats, so this may be a reason the condition hasn’t been more prevalent.

Getting back to our repair, Charleston Spar sent the dealer a new mast collar (actually they sent two—the first being a replica of the original, then a replacement for that one with redesigned clevis pins that supposedly fit deeper in the bottom of the collar, making it less susceptible to corrosion. To me the step looked just like the original, but I’m not a metallurgist.

We took the boat to the shipyard where the repair was to be done (the Admiral and I were liveaboards during the repair and got to help a lot more than we wanted. On the positive side, now we know how to unstep the mast, remove the boom and all stays and shrouds, etc). The job took 3 days rather than the 8 hours the yard quoted and, if we didn’t do much of the work, would have taken much longer. Most of the work was removing and restepping the mast—the actual changing of the step only took and hour or so. Since it seemed to us that the replacement part didn’t look much different than the original, I had the yard man put in extra heavy anti-corrosion stuff in each of the holes, including where the collar screws to the cabin and all around under the gasket. His advice was to make sure to really flush the area each time we wash the boat down to keep the salt out, but that is a tough thing to do living 100 yards from the Pacific.

If your boat is still in warranty or even slightly out, I would take a close look at the area and make sure the problem isn't occurring, corrosion being the insidious thing it is. As you can imagine, this problem has consumed a lot more of my time over the last year than I had hoped, so I do have a pretty good idea of who to contact, and I would be happy to share this info via email.

Ted Sholl, “Sound of Silence” hull#257 [tgsholl@earthlink.net]

 

 

Spreader Horizontal Position
Submitted by: Dave Peffer   1-00
Subject:  Rigging
Greetings:

The drooping spreader problem appears to be occurring in several boats, so I passed this along to Gerry Douglas at Catalina, who designed the boat.  He advises that the shrouds should be seized to the spreader tips with stainless steel wire, and this should have been done when the boat was commissioned, again if re-rigged. "Down angle is not correct and loads the spreader base excessively." He further advises that trying to fix this with discontinuous rigging is "not the answer as it requires turnbuckles in all segments to compensate for stretch, unless done with rod."  

We would all be well advised to check that our spreaders are level, and that the shrouds have been well-fixed to the ends with wire. Gerry doesn't say so directly, but "loads the spreader base excessively" reads to me like a threat of buckling the mast.

Dave Peffer

Hull #20, Spindrift

 

Riggers Gauge
Submitted By:  Dave Peffer Hull #20 10-98
Subject:  Other Equipment
The Professional Riggers’ Gauge, a plastic card which instantly measures inside and outside sizes of most tubing, standing rigging, line and electric wire. Easy to store and it answers your size questions on the spot. Note: I am an investor in this item, which I recognized as a winner as soon as I saw the prototype, which is now in my toolbox.  It is available from ABC, Inc, 1-800-877-4797.

 

Ensign Staff
Submitted by:  Dave Peffer Hull # 20 10-98
Subject:  Rigging
Our boat came without a welded holder for the ensign staff. A standard chrome staff holder (an angled one) was bolted to the aft edge of the port pulpit seat. It does not seriously distort the seat cushion and is not even noticed by anyone sitting in the seat.

 

Dutchman/Boom Lift
Submitted by:  Dave Peffer Hull # 20 10-98
Subject:  Rigging
Earlier hull numbers have an adjustable two-part boom lift designed to permit setting up the Dutchman exactly. This has a nasty tendency to shake out of the cam cleat at the end of the boom, and re-setting it with the sail luffing is no picnic. I opted to set the system up perfectly, then whipped the two parts of the boom lift together just above the cam cleat. No more loose line and the whipping can easily be cut when necessary.

 

Keeping the Jib Up
Submitted by:  Dave Peffer Hull # 20 10-98
Subject:  Rigging
With the jib halyard lead through a spinlock, the possibility of someone letting it go by mistake is real and earnest. I wrap the handle of this clutch with red fabric tape, adding a skull and crossbones and the word "NO" in laundry marker, for good measure. The jib hasn’t come down, yet.

 

Boom Vang Boom Attachment Problems
Submitted by:  George Ciechanowski Hull # 66 9-98
Subject:  Rigging
Something to keep an eye on is the screws that attach the boom vang to the boom.

The fitting on the end of the vang is secured with two screws and nyloninsert nuts. One of the nuts backed off and released the end of the fitting at the boom. The other screw was still in place but its' nut was loose.   Luckily I noticed the loose fitting before it did any major damage to itself or the boom.

Since the vang is in the way of tightening one of the screws I replaced both screws with hex head bolts, washers, and new nuts (you should not reuse nylon insert nuts, they loose their holding power). You gain access to the nuts by way of the inspection plate on the boom but to get to the forward screw to remove it or tighten it you must remove the vang from the end fitting. No big deal, just look out for the plastic bushing when you remove the bolt holding the sheaves on the end fitting. With the hex head bolts you can get a wrench on them easily to check them from time to time.

 

Boom Vang Pivot
Submitted by:  Dave Peffer Hull # 20 5-98
Subject:  Rigging
The pivot at the mast end of the vang turns on a pin held in place by only a cotter pin through the center. Nothing else holds it in place, and the cotter pin is liable to shear, dropping the pivot pin completely out of the fitting and releasing the vang from the mast. Pending a ‘fix’ for this problem, please check the cotter pin for wear and replace it at least once each season.

 

Outhaul System
Submitted by:  Jim Jaeschke Hull # 73 5-98
Subject:  Rigging
We ordered Electra’s sails from a local sailmaker which Electra really seemed to like. The main is loose footed.  I added a Harkin traveler car and track on the top of the boom for the outhaul. I drilled and tapped an aluminum plate with holes to match the 3' track and slid it into the space where the slugs would slide in the boom.  It was necessary to take the outer end cap off the boom off to get access the this space.  I used long screws to pull the plate to the top of the space and then used the correct length screws for the rest of the holes in the track.  This system   makes controlling the shape of the main very easy with a simple pull even in very strong winds.

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