Sparkles and Wine
Gary L. Snyder
10/11/2004
Hull #: 323
No red wine for you!!!
I know it may seen harsh in a Soup Natzyish way but we have always had one rule on board concerning wine. It is not like we are connoisseurs favoring the lighter toned fermentations nor prejudice of color, tones or whatever. The whites and roses’, dry or sweet, sparkling or not seem to do fine. The fact is I am really not much of a drinker. Nor is my wife. Either of our two, almost 30 something, kids could drink us under the table. But, our friends, family and clients really enjoy it. They even expect it to be served on such a fine craft as our Romanza a Catalina 380. It is beautiful and comfortable with plenty of creature comforts, full instrumentation, radar, flat screen tv, stereo, private quest quarters, shower, refrigeration, microwave, all
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Where do you begin when you are going to do a race to Isla Mujeres, off Mexico’s Yucatan coast? Officially, the race was to start in Pensacola in May. We began our trip in West End, LA in February. At least that’s when we began talking, planning, working and scheming. There were so many things to do to a basically sound boat that is raced almost every weekend. Everything was coming together smoothly until our C380, JAMBALAYA, found the bottom at West End outlet one rough Sunday and bent her rudder shaft.
Working with Catalina and our yard, the job was accomplished in near recordime. Catalina built a rudder in one week and our yard found a place in
their schedule to get it done.
Back on schedule with new sails arriving (there are never too many sails), new sheets spliced, new hardware installed,
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Hatch And Portlight Issues Warren Elliott 2/1/2004 Hull #: 44
While most of us realize that our hatches and portlights will not last forever, on the other hand a certain, and at least moderate, period of trouble-free performance is expected for new equipment. This is apparently not the case with regard to crazing of the acrylic. To be sure there’s also problems with leaks–there always will be with any exposed openable equipment on a boat. But crazing, a natural, usually slow, deterioration of the acrylic where fine lines appear randomly, should not strike for a few years. And when it does, we should see only minor amounts adding slowly over the years. Of course, this will vary depending principally on exposure to sunlight, so those of you in southern climes are most susceptible.
However, quite a large group of your fellow captains have indicated significant crazing appearing in their acrylics,
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Automating Refrigerator Startup and Shutdown with a Battery Combiner George LaForge 2/1/2004 Hull #: 147
We only run the refrigerator on Freebird when power is available from a charging source. That source is either dockside power or the engine alternator. I try never to run the refrigerator only from battery power. [George- maybe your fridge needs an insulation upgrade; Catalina has a procedure for installing expandable foam–Warren].
Not wanting to run down a battery, yet at the same time wanting to keep beverages cold, we developed a routine: as soon as the engine was started someone would need to go below and switch on the circuit breaker for the refrigerator. And after the engine was shut down someone would need to go below and switch off the breaker. Most of the time the problem was remembering to switch the breaker on when the engine was started.
One day while researching
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Filters for Drains George LaForge 2/1/2004 Hull #: 147
Regular cleaning of the inline shower bilge strainer is a task that is easily moved down a to-do list. The strainer’s out-of-sight location under the head sink and the difficulty in twisting the filter can contribute to a lack of cleaning. A simple, next-to-nothing cost project to prolong the cleaning interval is to silicone caulk a piece of nylon window screen over the drain in the shower stall. A quick wipe of the screen with a piece of tissue removes materials and hair that would otherwise be trapped in the under sink strainer.
Measure and cut a piece of nylon window screen the same dimensions as the shower’s stainless steel drain cover. Run a thin bead of silicone caulk around the edge of the drain plate and a few of the bars in the grid. Press the screen onto the drain
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Basic “Go-Fasts” For The C380 Author:Steve Dublin Date: 5/1/2004 Hull #: 84
We’ve found our C-380, “Caretta” (hull # 84), to be a very able club racer, particularly in offshore events. When her skipper and crew are reasonably attentive, she can sail to her 120 PHRF rating. The stock Catalina 380 comes well fitted out with sail handling gear. However, there are some basic “go fasts” (racing equipment), which can be easily added, to help the boat sail her to her full potential. I’ve described a few of these “go fasts” below along with some installation tips learned the hard way:
Adjustable Backstay The C-380 does not have a “bendy” rig. However, a pincer block assembly (Photo 3), connected to a 4 to 1 block & tackle, will allow you to tighten the forestay and point a little higher in moderate sea conditions. You don’t have to drill any holes
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Lee Berths for the Aft Cabin Jos Sonneville 2/1/2004 Hull #: 33
This article is from Jos Sonneville, a C380 captain residing in Holland. He gets out into “blue water” environments and finds a better rough-water sleeping set-up is helpful.–Warren
The aft cabin with the wide, comfortable bed is not an easy place to sleep when sailing through the night especially with moderate or serious seas. While it is possible to use, for example, sail bags to create a space where you do not roll around, it is not ideal. So I had been thinking about creating two lee berths in the aft cabin, without structurally changing the cabin.
Photo 3 shows an artist’s impression of the concept I came up with: on top of the mattress custom-made canvas lee-cloth ‘cocoons’ are installed. They are fixed on the bed itself by 1-inch webbing that is passed through stainless steel loops
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The mail reminded me that our engine manfacturers –actually theirdistributors–sponsor one-day seminars on diesel engines, including yourmodel. As non-sailing season approaches [for most of us, anyway], this is agood time to plan on attending one of these seminars. You’ll learn a lotabout diesels, and you can get answers to just about anything relevant. Costis generally $175.To find the nearest location, a list of dealers is available atWesterbeke.com and YanmarMarine.com Or call Westerbeke at 508 823-7677,Yanmar at 847 541-1900. Here in the northeast, Westerbeke’s Hansen Marine[MA] typically holds two “owner” seminars every quarter. Mack Boring [NJ,NC, MA & IL] has a similar schedule for their “maintenance” seminars onYanmar engines. — Warren
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As a follow-up to Steve’s article, I did some further enquiries on spinnaker/jib poles and cars. For the older C380’s with Z-Spar masts, Julian Crisp at US Spars [was Z-Spar, tel: 386 462-3760] indicates that, for the standard [non-furling] mast, the cost is about $250 for a car and short section of track. They also sell the same track in a long version [4 meters], for those who want to store their boat’s pole on the mast. US Spars’ furling mast uses a simpler approach in which the car can be added directly to the mast groove, and is about $170; installing this car does not require stepping the mast. They also sell complete poles with fittings, at better prices than the big catalog stores, per Julian. [But remember that shipping long items means that a trucking
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The standard headsail sheets each lead through a track-mounted block and a cheek block before being led to a primary winch. While this is no problem under some conditions, when the wind pipes up, cranking the sheet winch, especially with my 155% jib, gets really tough. The added friction from the “wrap around” cheek block surely adds significant stress to this old sailor. To improve the situation, some have upgraded to ball-bearing blocks. Another approach is to lead the sheet more directly to it’s winch, as shown in the accompanying photo, courtesy Commodore Earle Ellefsen.
Here, his boat’s port genny sheet lead is shown. From the jib, the lead traverses the normal, moveable track-mounted block [not shown], then through a second block as shown, directly to the winch. This bypasses the cheek block, providing a much straighter lead with correspondingly
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