Newbie, soon-to-be C34 MK II owner, has a few questions

[oneman]

Greetings,

I'm in the process of negotiating the purchase of a 2003 MK II and I've been reviewing _ALL_ the articles on this forum to avoid asking any unnecessary questions.  There are 2 issues I'm researching now, and I'm hoping for some advice.

1) No Radar
This boat has no radar installed.  I don't think I'll need radar right away but I'm looking for a rough estimate of the cost to add it, I know it will be dependent on the particular unit but is it fair to say that installing radar will cost at least $3,000.00? More, less??  Will I need to step the mast for this to be done?

2) Main sail needs to be replaced
Are there preferred or recommended lofts to purchase from?  Catalina direct, etc?  The foot of my main sail is attached to the boom, can I go with a loose footed sail instead?

Thanks

[SPembleton]

I am also a relative newbie to boat ownership, and i am sure that others with a lot more experience will weigh in.  Anyway here is my opinion

Radar - if you already have a chartplotter that can display the radar image, the actual array rums about 1-2k.  If you don't have a chartplotter, i would invest in that before radar.  That would cost 5-800 plus installation if you hire it out.  I had a local electronocs co replace 2 transducers, change my binnacle guard, build a mounting bracket, install a NMEA2000 network, all for abput 1k.  Hopefully you would not need all of that. If you need to buy a chartplotter, I would wait until November to buy it.  I bought a Garmin 741xs for about S700 last wimter.  List is $1100, best sale in summer is about $900. If you already have a radar compatible chartplotter, installing the radar is just mounting the array and running the wire to the back of the chartplotter.  Degree of difficulty based on where you want to mount it. You can mount on a pole off your pushpit, or on the front of the mast.  I have no experience there, so i will defer to others.

Sail - If i were to replace any sail, i would find a local sail loft. I am luckynto have one in town.  The manager would ask ypu queagions about hpw and where you sail and design it exactly for your needs.  Regarding loose-footed- I have no 8dea.  I will let someone else com,ent.

That is my 2 cents. I just did all of this this spring and would be happy to tell you anything else abput my experiences.  Feel free to pm me with your phone #.

[Clay Greene]

We just added radar to our C387 (I am a former C34 owner) and it was approximately $1800 between the Raymarine radome, the cables, and the mount.  We did the installation ourselves.  Whether or not you need to unstep depends on where you mount the radome.  You can install it on a pole off the stern or you can install it on the mast.  If on the mast, the mast is going to need to come down for the installation.  The cable from the radome runs down the inside of the mast and feeds into the boat through the channel in the compression post.  As far as I know, there is no way to do that without taking the mast down.  It also would be very difficult to install the mount (ours is riveted) and the radome with the mast up. 

As to the sail, you can install a loose-footed mainsail on a C34.  I had issues with the outhaul on our boat so I don't know how worthwhile it would have been to have had a loose-footed mainsail. 

For sail lofts, I agree with the comment about using someone local so long as you have some degree of confidence in them and they are competitive in price.  It is a pain and expensive to have to ship a sail back to a loft if there is an issue.  But we have used non-local lofts for our sails and have had good results as well.     

[oneman]

We just added radar to our C387 (I am a former C34 owner) and it was approximately $1800 between the Raymarine radome, the cables, and the mount.  We did the installation ourselves.  Whether or not you need to unstep depends on where you mount the radome.  You can install it on a pole off the stern or you can install it on the mast.  If on the mast, the mast is going to need to come down for the installation.  The cable from the radome runs down the inside of the mast and feeds into the boat through the channel in the compression post.  As far as I know, there is no way to do that without taking the mast down.  It also would be very difficult to install the mount (ours is riveted) and the radome with the mast up. 

As to the sail, you can install a loose-footed mainsail on a C34.  I had issues with the outhaul on our boat so I don't know how worthwhile it would have been to have had a loose-footed mainsail. 

For sail lofts, I agree with the comment about using someone local so long as you have some degree of confidence in them and they are competitive in price.  It is a pain and expensive to have to ship a sail back to a loft if there is an issue.  But we have used non-local lofts for our sails and have had good results as well.     

I assume you used a pole mount?

[oneman]

I am also a relative newbie to boat ownership, and i am sure that others with a lot more experience will weigh in.  Anyway here is my opinion

Radar - if you already have a chartplotter that can display the radar image, the actual array rums about 1-2k.  If you don't have a chartplotter, i would invest in that before radar.  That would cost 5-800 plus installation if you hire it out.  I had a local electronocs co replace 2 transducers, change my binnacle guard, build a mounting bracket, install a NMEA2000 network, all for abput 1k.  Hopefully you would not need all of that. If you need to buy a chartplotter, I would wait until November to buy it.  I bought a Garmin 741xs for about S700 last wimter.  List is $1100, best sale in summer is about $900. If you already have a radar compatible chartplotter, installing the radar is just mounting the array and running the wire to the back of the chartplotter.  Degree of difficulty based on where you want to mount it. You can mount on a pole off your pushpit, or on the front of the mast.  I have no experience there, so i will defer to others.

Sail - If i were to replace any sail, i would find a local sail loft. I am luckynto have one in town.  The manager would ask ypu queagions about hpw and where you sail and design it exactly for your needs.  Regarding loose-footed- I have no 8dea.  I will let someone else com,ent.

That is my 2 cents. I just did all of this this spring and would be happy to tell you anything else abput my experiences.  Feel free to pm me with your phone #.

Thanks, I will be replacing the chart plotter so I'll make sure find one that will display radar for future compatibility.

[Mike and Joanne Stimmler]

I mounted mine on a pole on the stern but was told by a local rigger he could do it without dropping the mast if I wanted it on the mast. Also if you do the mast, you will probably need on optional long cable. When I tallied the cost of each type mount, it was about the same, parts wise.

Mike

[Geoffreykwright]

I have a radar dome mounted on a 'pole' (a Garhauer radar mast) attached to my stern rail on my Cat 34 Mk II and it works very nicer.  I also have my GPS antenna mounted there.  That would be my advice.

[Stu Jackson]

Geoff (can we call you that?),

WELCOME to our weird little world.

Thanks for joining us & contributing.

[Noah]

Welcome! My radar (Simrad 4G) is mast-mounted on a S.S. tubing bracket from Kato Marine. Very happy with both. Fortunately I installed/wired, when I had the mast unstepped for painting and rewiring/rerigging. At that time, I installed a second conduit in the mast. Should last (for my) forever.

[Clay Greene]

Our radome is mast-mounted.  I am interested in the comment about the rigger who said that he could mount it on the mast with the stick up.  I ran the cable from the radome through new conduit installed in the inside of the mast and down through the compression post with all the other wires from the mast (VHF antenna and lights).  It was a pretty tight fit getting those wires through compression post.  I may lack imagination but I am pretty confident that there was no way to run the cable inside the mast with the stick up.  You would be able to run the cable on the outside of the mast but then you still have to get it inside the boat at some point. 

I do agree that the cost was basically the same comparing mast mounting to a pole on the back.  The mast mount is less expensive than a Garhauer pole but you have to pay for the cost of stepping and unstepping plus there is the cost of the additional cable (approximately $125 for the extension).  I chose to go with the mast mount because it gets the radome higher and for personal preference on the appearance.  But if you have a large overlapping headsail like a 150 or a 155, I would very seriously consider the stern mount because a large genoa will drag a lot over a mast mounted radome.  Our 135 drags a bit but so far it has been fine. 

[Noah]

My stick is keel stepped so... different situation. i had plenty of room to install extra conduit and exit cables at base of mast. My Kato Marine radar mount is has a tube cage/guard that should allow a 150 to easily tack past without a problem.

[Mike and Joanne Stimmler]

Noah and Clay
My mast was keel stepped also so that may have been the reason that the rigger could(possibly) have done it without unstepping the mast.
Noah, did you actually have yours installed with the mast up?

Mike

[Noah]

No. I had mast down for repaint, rerig and rewire, so it was pretty straight forward. I added LED spreader lights so I ran radar cable and those together in new PVC separate conduit.

[Clay Greene]

I guess maybe you could do it with a keel-stepped mast.  You'd have to drill through the mast and tap into the existing conduit, pull a chase line up with one of the lighting/antenna wires, and then use the chase line to pull the radar cable and the lighting/antenna wire back down and through the base of the mast.  It would be a challenge.  I guess I always like to take the mast down every couple of years to do an inspection and re-tape cotter rings, etc. plus I am not a fan of heights so I was glad to do it on the ground.