New to me 34 mk 1.5 #1120

waughoo · October 28, 2020, 07:41:58 PM

Hello all! Years ago I identified the Catalina 34 as the boat I wanted and chartered a few for many years. I have spent years lurking on this forum reviewing all the great ideas and mods you all have come up with and have thought how I would do mine when I got one.

That day finally came just a month ago. I bought #1120 from the Ozark Yacht Club in Missouri where she was used as a teaching boat. She had suffered what i call club rash and has a number of bumps and small bruises, but is otherwise all there. I brought her to the Pacific NW where she will live somewhere on Puget sound. Presently she is on the hard in Anacortes while i recomission all the cruising systems and clean her up. I plan to launch in April 21. I cant wait for that day!

Cheers all...

Alex
C34 #1120 (std wing)

Noah · October 28, 2020, 07:50:51 PM

Welcome aboard!

Stu Jackson · October 28, 2020, 08:00:52 PM

Welcome. I recently (2016) moved from San Francisco to Vancouver Island. Hope to get to meet you on the water.

waughoo · October 28, 2020, 08:31:15 PM

Stu,

Yes... I hope to meet you out and about as well. The cruising grounds in your neck of the woods are fantabulous. We made one trip to the gulf islands and Wallace Island was our most favorite stop of the trip.

Stu Jackson · October 28, 2020, 08:48:38 PM

Quote from: waughoo on October 28, 2020, 08:31:15 PM
.........................
Wallace Island was our most favorite stop of the trip.

One of my favorites. Conover Cove:

senorquill · October 29, 2020, 07:28:44 AM

Congrats!

scgunner · October 29, 2020, 07:37:19 AM

Does this vessel have a name?

Patches · October 29, 2020, 07:38:10 AM

Welcome Alex and Congrats!

Thanks Stu for showing a photo of one of my favorite "run aground" spots. Got to spend a couple hours right in the entrance to Conover Cove about 10 years ago. Soft bottom, so I rowed out a kedge anchor into the cove, tensioned the rode, and waited for the tide to come up. Popped off the bottom after a couple of hours and drifted into the deeper water of the Cove where we stern tied for a lovely night.

Can't wait to come back to BC to some of my favorite spots, including my "run aground" spots.

Patches

scgunner · October 29, 2020, 07:54:33 AM

Interesting, that's the first time I've seen the words "favorite" and "run aground spots" used in the same sentence.

Frasse Pelle · October 29, 2020, 08:35:02 AM

Congrats Alex. We have very similar boat. I have hull #1292 another MK 1.5 here in San Diego.

Francois
S/V Whitecaps

waughoo · October 29, 2020, 08:44:07 AM

Kevin,

Her present name is Hard Times. The only place i can still find evidence of the name is on the coast guard documentation and a very faint shadow of the name on the starboard aft quarter. Her new name will be Belafonte named after the ship in Steve Zissou's Life Aquatic. It is a tribute film to Jacques Cousteau and the film maker named the ship Belafonte because Harry Belafonte became famous for singing calypso music. Calypso was the name of Cousteau's ship and thus is a bit of an Easter egg for the viewers to sort out. I have yet to do a formal renaming ceremony so she remains officially hard times until that happens which should be in the spring when shes afloat again.

Thanks to all for the warm welcome. All my photos are too large to post so ill have to wait till i have time to resize a few and upload them.

Thanks Francois! It has been fun to see hull numbers that are close to mine on here. I have even seen posts from one of the previous owners here on the board though it does not appear they were particularly active. It would be fun to chat with any of them to hear stories from their term of stewardship.

Jim Lucas · October 29, 2020, 09:27:54 AM

Welcome to the 34 group and looking forward to seeing another Catalina sailing the PNW!

glennd3 · October 29, 2020, 10:47:18 AM

Welcome and congrats! I have the same model so if I can help lease PM me.

scgunner · October 30, 2020, 07:58:23 AM

Alex,

It would seem with a name like "Hard Times" a name change would be in order. Top Gun was the name of my boat when I got it, the movie had recently come out and it seemed like every other new boat was named Top Gun.

On this site we're biased of course, but you picked a good boat, it's got good bones. You'll be making a lot of changes and upgrades to make this boat your own, but with the C34 you've got a great place to start.

Frasse Pelle · October 30, 2020, 10:08:20 AM

Hi Alex,

Actually, I am in contact with the previous 2 owners. The last owner was essentially doing local sailing in San Diego for the past 7 years. But the owner prior to that bought the boat in San Francisco bay, did major upgrades and sailed to Mexico (Baja Ha Ha 2012) and Sea of Cortez before sailing back to San Diego. You read their blog on their sailing adventures at the link below.

http://pksadventures.blogspot.com/

Very useful for us as we are planning a similar trip in few years (yes lots of boat projects in between).

Francois