Category Archives: Sailing

2008, Customizations, Sailing

“Noodles” Stop Wave Slapping

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“Noodles” Stop Wave Slapping
Bill Weaver
May, 2008
Hull #: C380 # 54

 My wife and I have sailed our C380 on Lake Michigan since it was delivered to us new in early 1997. Since I retired two years ago, we’ve logged about 1,000 miles over several weeks each of the two summers.

There are few things that annoy us about our C380, the main one being water slapping noise in the stern cabin. It seems that we too often end up with an aft wind, causing small ripplets or larger waves to slap against the hull. We’ve solved this problem by using swimming “noodles”. We string two noodles onto a line and secure it to the stern cleats or to the stern rail. One seems to work well if there are only small ripplets; otherwise two will usually do the trick. The photo shows our boat after a rough

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2008, Electronics, Mainsheet, Repair/Replace/Maintain, Reviews, Sailing

XM Satellite Marine Weather

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XM Satellite Marine Weather
Steve Dublin
May, 2008
Hull #: C380

The following article is from Steve Dublin famous for his 380’s ocean racing and Mainsheet front cover – Warren

About six months ago, I upgraded the GPS/Chartplotter on my Catalina C-380 “Caretta” to a Garmin model 3206. The new chartplotter was mounted in the cockpit on the pedestal guard. It was networked to Garmin’s GDL 30A XM satellite marine weather receiver, which I installed below deck by the distribution panel. The installation process was very straightforward once I learned how to splice an ethernet connection. The watertight ethernet connectors are too large to snake down a pedestal guard tube.

However, Garmin sells a separate connector kit. This allows you to cut off one connector, snake the wire through the tube, and remake a watertight connection. The weather receiver has its own mushroom-type antenna that I mounted on the hoop

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2006, Cruising, Customizations, Mainsheet, Sailing, Storage

Long Term Cruising Mods

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Long Term Cruising Mods
Cliff & Deb Mewdell
February, 2006

Hull: 332

 Hello From the Bahamas!

After months of talking and planning, a lot of shopping, fixing and stuffing the boat, plus a couple of months moving down the ICW, we finally made it “across” [the Gulf Stream] to the Bahamas Islands. Admiral Jeanne & I aboard My Bride II, along with buddy-boats Valkyrie, English Rose, and part-timers Albicilla and Watermark I, have done a lot, seen a lot, encountered a lot, and hopefully have learned something!. But all this is, as is said, a story for another day.

However, at least sunrise of that day may have arrived with the printing of Commodore Earle’s [Valkyrie] column herein. So peruse that for all the associations doin’s, possibly including some of its officers adventures.

On to the tech stuff. We first met Canadian cruisers Cliff & Debra Mewdell aboard Watermark I

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2006, Customizations, Mainsheet, Sailing, Storage

Cruising Made Easier

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Cruising Made Easier
Warren Elliott

November, 2006 Hull #: 44

Recently, the admiral and I were musing about the modifications and “stuff” we’ve added to our C380 [#44], My Bride II. After 10 years, it’s quite a bit and, as you can imagine, there’s always more that can add to our cruising pleasure. So, in case you’ve missed some of these, here’s a list of my favorites, roughly in order of cost; they range from zero cost to some “big boat bucks”. With apologies to racers, these are geared to making cruising easier and/or just more pleasurable. Feel free to let me know your favorite[s] if you don’t see your’s below. Note that we have not installed all of these, but have most. “[Mainsheet]” means there’s an article on the subject which can either be found in earlier issues or on our website at www.catalina380.org. Click on Boat Related, then

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2005, Mainsheet, Sailing

Boat Speed Under Power – Mainsheet May 2005

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Title:Boat Speed Under Power
Author:Jim Jaeschke
Date: 5/1/2005
Hull #: 73

Boat Speed Under Power – Engine/Transmission/Propeller Performance There has been a few lively discussions on the Sailnet C380+ list about how fast and at what RPM our boats will move under engine power. The bottom line is that your boat should cruise at 7+ knots at engine rev’s that promote long life. I’ll try to help you get there by discussing prop characteristics, tying in engine performance and, for the practical side: tachometer and boat speed instrumentation.

Instrumentation In order to know our boat’s motoring performance, we need reasonably accurate instrumentation. It has been reported that the tachometer on some boats has not been calibrated, resulting in erroneous RPM readings. It is important, not only for this discussion but also for engine life, that the tach indicate engine RPM correctly. If you suspect a problem, have your boat yard

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2005, Engine, Mainsheet, Sailing, Transmission

Engine Transmission While Sailing- Fixed and Special Props – Mainsheet February 2005

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Engine Transmission While Sailing- Fixed and Special Props
Warren Elliott
Mainsheet Date: 2/1/2005
Hull #: 44 

There had been a lot of discussion, and some confusion, on this topic occurring on our Sailnet email group a couple of years ago. The major issue was what gear should be used while sailing, in order to minimize wear on transmission parts, particularly with an Autoprop. This is an unusual prop, so different rules may apply. A secondary problem is the special transmission clutch used on our Yanmar engines, which are found on the newer C380’s and on all C387’s and C390’s. With additional knowledge and experience gathered over time, a report on this subject seems appropriate.

To start things off on the engine side of the issue, I contacted Joe Joyce at Westerbeke for info on this issue with regard to their 42B engine. Those of us with older 380’s [up to

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2005, Mainsheet, Reviews, Sailing

Affordable Cordless Drill as Winch Driver

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Affordable Cordless Drill as Winch Driver
Roger Cheney

2/1/2005 Hull #: 132

Faithful readers of this column [others are to be pitied!] may recall an earlier brief article [May ’03] in which Wallace Shakun [Morning Star, C380 #12] proposed using a heavy-duty cordless drill to drive winches. He put the idea into practice using a straight-drive 1/2″ Bosch drill together with an adapter “bit”, which he developed, that mates a standard 1/2″ chuck with our winch drive socket.

The idea sounded good to me, except that I felt a right-angle drill would provide an easier way to resist the high torques developed [about 500 inch-pounds]. Wallace indicated that the straight-drive version worked well, but that he was also considering the right-angle approach.

Milwaukee now has a hefty right-angle drill, which develops a “bit” more torque, and which costs somewhat more [$300 vs $200]. Roger Cheney [C380 #132, “2nd Wind”] has

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2004, Customizations, Rig, Sailing

Go Fast Owner Improvements

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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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2004, Customizations, Sailing

Improving Genny Sheet Leads

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Improving Genny Sheet Leads
Warren Elliott
 11/27/2004
Hull #: 44

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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2004, Customizations, Mainsheet, Rig, Sailing

Basic “Go-Fasts” For The C380

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Basic “Go-Fasts” For The C380
Steve Dublin
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 for

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