maybe moving up

[Ken Juul]

I know we have some 380 owners here, going to look at a 2000 380, give the admiral something to do while I paint the bottom.  Any quirks or gotyas we should be looking for?

[britinusa]

Only one (other than envy)

You'll not have 30 years of valuable advice about the boat for about 25 years!

Paul

[Stu Jackson]

Ken, I just typed "380" in the search bar and found a few hits.  Maybe someone you could contact by pm?  If you need their email, let me know.

[Solstice]

I know we have some 380 owners here, going to look at a 2000 380, give the admiral something to do while I paint the bottom.  Any quirks or gotyas we should be looking for?

Hi ken,
I've been assisting good friends of mine in finding a 380 over the past month. I've looked at 4 so far in the 99-2001 range. Here's what I'm consistently finding:

Chainplates: check for leaking (typical on most boats this age)
Lewmar fixed ports: These boats have the two piece version of these ports and the caulking in the horizontal connection tends to be dried out and must be recaulked. I had this issue on my 320 and it is an easy fix. Many mistake this for the entire port leaking.
Rudder bearing: Check for sloppy rudder as 3 of the 4 I've looked at had this problem. There is a liveaboard 380 in my marina and I helped him replace his last summer. He had significant crevice corrosion at the stock where the bearing was.
Look closely at the Hull/Deck joint. One had some leaking where the rub rail is attached.

Good luck and feel free to pm me if you have additional questions. It's a big boat!!

[Clay Greene]

Ken,

Although it is not in any way comparable to the C34 site and message board, there is a C380/C387/C390 owner's group on Yahoo.  There are many threads about what to look for in a C380, including this recent one:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Catalina380/conversations/topics/26370?from=trending

You may need to create a Yahoo account to access the owner's group.  There also is a separate owner's website with manuals, etc., but it is not used for owner communication like the C34 site. 

Other than the typical things you would look for in a sailboat that is more than 10 years old, the biggest problem I have read about was with the Westerbeke 42B engines in the early C380s.  There was inadequate cooling to one or more of the cylinders that led to engine failure.   There was a recall on the engine but not all of the owners got the notice and/or had the repairs done.  Catalina switched to Yanmars during the latter half of the production run, so it definitely was not an issue with those boats.

We have a C387, which is the same Morgan hull shape and footprint but the cockpits are very different and there are less significant differences below deck.  I think a C380 and a C387 perform pretty similarly under sail.  Both boats are heavy for their size  - I believe the sail area to displacement ratio is around 15 with the wing keel.  That translates to not great light air performance.  It really takes about 8 knots of wind to make the boats move.  But, as you would expect, they're rock stars in 12-25 knots, particularly on a reach.   Our boat performs great under power - we have no trouble doing a sustained 7 knots at 2500 RPMs in relatively flat seas (although some of my fellow owners have reported poorer results, perhaps because of their props?).  We regularly hit 8 knots under sail in 15 knots of wind and have seen between 9 and 10 when it is really blowing.  They're very solid and stable boats for long-distance cruising - exactly what you would expect from Catalina. 

Let me know if you have any specific questions.  My experience with our boat may not exactly translate but I can tell if you if I have read anything on that topic and/or point you in the right direction.   

[Bill Asbury]

Best wishes in moving up to a newer and larger Catalina, Ken.
In my experiece, buying the newest boat you can possibly afford will save the expense of many repairs and upgrades
and result in a much more pleasant ownership experience for you and your First Mate.

[tgsail1]

Ken- We did this several years ago (and you helped us!). PM me and I can give you a pretty good data dump on the 380.
T

[Ken Juul]

We had friends that bought a brand new 2000 380.  Admiral thought it was the perfect boat.  The boat we looked at had not been cleaned and had that live aboard cluttered look.  The Vee berth does have a sink, but seemed smaller than the 34.  The aft cabin did not have the stand up room she had remembered.  Her dream was smashed.  Over cocktails sitting in the cockpit, she remarked, she must have been crazy, what could be better than what we have.