Anyone making the trek this year to the show?
I hope to be there on Friday.
I plan to be there Friday along with a bunch of other C34IA Fleet 12 folks.
Bill
We will be there all weekend. Does Catalina have any parties planed. Charlie
I will be there on Monday.
Sail : Catalina usually has a party on Saturday night.
We will be there Friday and Saturday along with another couple from our marina. With Charlie that will make three couples form NE Port on Lake Erie.
Mark Mueller
I'll be leaving after work on Friday from Toronto, drive all night(9.5hr drive) Be there Saturday and also a bit on Sunday.
Were do we signup for that Catalina party? :)
no need to sign up, there is generally a sign indicating what time it starts. Or the rep in the owners booth will know. I can't make it until Sunday.
I'll be there on friday (knock on wood) all the way from Middle River.
A one hour trip. :D
Thanks Ken...
I will most likely be walking around with the club cap, with EYC on the front.
Anyone have a discount code for the show to buy tickets online?
Catalina is having the party on Saturday at the booth.
Also the Catalina Yacht store has a coupon that can be used only at the show.
If you need a copy email me and I will send it to you.
Paul
The ADMIRAL and her trusty XO will be at the show Fri. and Sat.
Leslie and Stewart Napoleon
Desiree, C34 Mk II, # 1472
Old Greenwich YC
Greenwich, CT
I'm hoping some of you guys headed to Annapolis will post some pictures and share some thoughts of the new 355?
I'll be there on the Gill booth all week! Come by and say hi. Also, talked with Ron of Catalina and he admitted that they did copy the floor plan of the 34 with a few minor tweaks. It does look good and he said that the 355, during sea trials, jumped right on up to 7.3kts with very little effort.
If the 355 is still there on Monday I will be looking and taking some pictures. I also plan to see how easy it is to rip the head sink out :D
Weather was beautiful today for the opening of the boat show.
Although Soundings's " Trade Only" said there were alot more
exhibitors present, my take was that there were a lot less boats on display this
year than any previous year that I had seen. Catalina had the 355 sitting there and it
has some really nice features, but she doesn't have the lines of a 34.
What more can I say!
Starting to feel "sorry" for that new head sink. If it can survive the boat show then it can survive anything. Looking forward to seeing some impressions and pictures of the 355.
Quote from: Joe Kern on October 07, 2010, 06:14:02 AM
If the 355 is still there on Monday I will be looking and taking some pictures. I also plan to see how easy it is to rip the head sink out :D
Looks easy to rip out. Harder to put back in. :D :D :D
That may be the one thing on a boat that is ok for 5200. :clap
Say it today. NO to the head sink. Cabinetry looks good. Other than that, can we say C34? Like the lines of the C34 better.
My guess is that this being hull #1, we may very likely see minor changes as the line progresses, with the head sink being one of the first changes.
Will be at the show tomorrow (Saturday) will judge for myself first hand.
Steve
I got a good look at the C355 today at the show. I very much like the main cabin--the starboard seats and the neatly folding dinette table are fabulous.
I share the concerns about the head sink.
I was very impressed with the anchor windlass--with a split chain and "rope" drum. Almost enough to sell me on the boat.
I caught the last part of Gerry Douglas's 11 AM seminar. He made a very credible case for their decision to make in-mast furling standard. With the rig designed for it, allowing for a larger main, for example, it should sail well. And as he said, the customers want it!
I asked about the outboard Genoa track on the 34 which is missing on the 355. He had an excellent response--the inboard track is still impressively long, and the aluminum toe rail has lots of places to put a snatch block, so the outboard track is not necessary. Of course I should have figured that out!
About the lines--I'm terribly biased, but I think the C34 is prettier.
Oops...I meant PORT seats, of course. Sorry.
First impressions of a first time Annapolis boat show attendee. IT IS BIG!. I agree that the lines of the 355 are not as nice as the 34, but I was really impressed with the boat. So many great improvements over our MK I. I like the electrical panel, storage and especially the slotted toe rail. I have always felt the enclosed scupper drainss on the 34 MKI were a very poor design so was glad to see them continue with the open drains. The one cabin feature I have alsays wished was on the 34 are the two chairs like on the 36. Glad to see them on the 355. I agree that Hunter has made some big improvements in their line, but still think that the overall work on the Catalina is better and nicer. The boats that have always made me salivate are the Tartans. Won't spend the money for one, but I really like the woodwork on the Tartans. We bought a couple of the Fender Grip products. It looks like a good thing for adjusting fenders.
Mark Mueller
Had another good day at the boat show. Enjoyed the party for the Catalina owners too. In the afternoon we left the show and went to see the sights at the Naval Academy. We enjoyed the museum as the exhibits have been completely redone and modernized since our last trip several years ago. WE had to leave at closing and this fellow followed us out the door. Seems he is the assistant curator and head curator for all of the ships models in the museum. He spent about 20 minutes with us on the front porch of the museum tellilng us about the ships model collection that dates to 1650. Learned a lot from him and gave us an insight into ships and their history we were completely ingnorant about. If you have not seen the museium at the academy you should go. Their ships model collection alone is worth the trip.Our visit with him made the highpoint of the day.
Mark Mueller
The 355 presents itself much better in person than in the pictures. Crowd was huge so I didn't get to poke around as much as I would have liked. Lots of comments on the head sink, the standard answer from the sales rep is that it was done that way to allow more counter space in the head. Deck design was good, finally real stainless rub rails. The bow sprit looks a bit wimpy, but Catalina never underdesigns, so it is probably just my perception. I think it will sell. But the Admiral and I still prefer our 34.
I saw and liked the 355 at the show, too. Liked the bare wire lifelines, which I've thought for some time were preferable. Liked the addition of frontloading fridge along with top loader, one of which might be a freezer but didn't check. Liked the steps on each side of v-berth for ease of entry and egress. Not too sure about electrical panel with black background in glass-enclosed cabinet, wondering if togle labels would be as easy to read as on our boat with white background. Didn't check engine access, just did a cursory once-over with so many people wanting to see the boat. Probably forgetting other interesting features.
Bottom line: Admiral and I agree we are pleased with our 34 and wouldn't go on the hook for the $$$ to move up to the 355.
Looks like most of the Vberth storage on the port side (3 drawers & bottom door) are gone.
Hard to believe that the lady designer got to Jerry Doughas on the head sink!!
It was great to see and meet all the C34 owners that came by the Gill booth! Thanks for stopping by.
Interesting observation....I notice on my 2010 Boat Show calendar (in which the picture was taken in 2009), there appears to be 8 boats on display at the Catalina dock area. This year, there were only 4 boats on display.
I just got back into town and work beckons so my quick summary is that I really liked a lot of what I saw. Storage in the cockpit area seemed much different and it was crowded so I did not get to lift up the seats in the cockpit area. The port lazerrette was open and appeared massive and I am not sure where all that room came from. Basically a lot of upgrades to the interior almost all of which I liked. Exterior stuff like the lifeline height and bare lines, the bowspirit, toe-rails etc all seemed like upgrades. Did anyone see the unusual vertical mounted flat winch on the rear of the mast facing aft? I saw it on other boats at the show. I guessed it had something to do with the roller furling but am not sure.
I also spent a couple of days at the Annapolis show and was much more impressed with the C355 in person than I was with the photos. As the "new kid on the block," it seemed to get the most attention of the 4 boats Catalina brought to the show.
In addition to the comments everyone else has made about the 355, I like the new port and starboard mounting for the instruments to keep the pedestal guard clear looking forward. It was interesting to see how far forward the mast was compared to our boats. I imagine that would make for a larger mainsail and more overlap with the 150. That allowed the compression post to be moved to the bulkhead wall and made the interior seem a bit bigger. The v-berth seemed smaller than on our boats but there was room for an actual door that opened and closed instead of the accordian door we have on our boat. The sidedecks seemed narrower than a Mark II boat but maybe that was my imagination. The cabintop certainly seems higher than the Mark II boat but maybe not as high as the 350. I do wonder about the choice of the Yanmar 29 hp engine - that seems like a step back from the M35 in the Mark II boats. The head seemed to have more space than the Mark I or Mark II boats and moving the sink farther forward gets rid of the interference from the bulkhead, a major annoyance on our boat. The front-opening refrigerator is an improvement over our boats but it seemed small.
All in all, I liked the boat and would have to give it serious consideration if I was looking for a new boat in that size. I guess that is not so surprising given its similarity to our boats. Yet, when you look at the delta between a good used C34 and a new C355, it is an easy decision in my mind to go with the C34. Not enough "bang" for the additional bucks. I think that is a general problem that Catalina has, competing with their older models for customers.
I was surprised to see only ONE opening port in the salon! Can't believe only one! My C34 has four. My wife also commented that the v-berth seemed smaller. I didn't like the port and starboard instruments. I feel the view of the instruments (like depth in particular) should be in front of you when motoring through a narrow channel. On my boat, I like to sit on the leeward coaming and I glance at the instruments on the pedestal. If I was sitting on the leeward coaming on the C355, I would be sitting on two of them, and the other two would be way over on the windward side.
Did anyone go on the Oyster 70? What an incredible boat. If we all go in together........
Also, not sure which boat it was (may have been the 45 ft Hanse), but one of the boats had a really nice nav station set-up facing to starboard with all the bells and whistles. Plus when I sat in the chair (facing starboard) and looked just to the left at knee level there was a narrow 12 bottle wine refrigerator. That just seemed kind of nice to put it within reach of the captain.
Some beautiful boats, some ugly boats (just can't like the catamarans no matter how much I try) and seems like everyone has some new gadgets, most of which are silly but some of which really are improvements. Lots of stuff to digest. A few small purchases here and there but spent way below my budget. Did spend too much time at the tent with the guy selling bi-focal polarized sunglasses. Alas, part of growing older but not up.
The Oyster was a jaw-dropper. $4.1 million base price, probably an even $5 million nicely-outfitted. An almost equally incredible boat but in a slightly more realistic price range was the Morris 42. The interior looked as if it has been carved out of a single piece of wood. Nice to see how the other one-tenth of one percent of the population sails.
One thing that struck me about the show was the price escalation. My boat cost approximately $60,000 new in 1989. That would be roughly $100,000 today. The base price of the C355 was $165,000 and fully-outfitted would be in the $190-$200K range. There are probably 100 reasons why the C355 is a better boat than my C34 from a construction quality standpoint. You could make arguments both ways on aesthetics. But from an affordability perspective, where is the $100K cruising sailboat for the family? Even a 309 will run you $135K and there is no way I am taking a week cruising trip with my 10 year old daughters on a 309.
I was told by one of the vendors that the Catalina plant in St. Petersburg is very quiet. Their dealers are not ordering boats on spec because there is no financing or it is very difficult to come by. I'd hate to think that their business model is not sustainable.
The Oyster comments remind me that I saw the retired chairman of American Airlines at the show some years ago and, knowing he was originally from Gloucester MA I figured he knew a bit about boats, so I asked what kind he had. He said he was having an Oyster built in England and would be going over with his wife to sail it home. Read later in WSJ that they had to do an extended layover in the Azores due to electrical/electronic problems...:-(
Yes we went fri and sat what a great show ... We looked at ALOT of different sailboat and the Catalinas were the best !!!! You cant beat a catalina for comfort and handling and looks Great Boat The 44 was just awesome.. Found oput there is a new Catalina dealer in Oriental ...
FYI to Chesapeake area sailors:
There will be an open house at Sail Annapolis, the Annapolis-based Catalina dealer, from 10 to 4 on Sat. 10/23.
The 355 on display at the recent boat show will be available to see in the water by the Chart House.
www.sailannapolis.com
410 280 8878
Did anyone else notice the very rough, unfinished look of the cabin ceiling in the 355? I was not sure how bad it looked until I was on my boat this weekend and saw how smooth the finish. Is that the new look or just because it was Hull # 1?
I always liked the cabin ceiling in my boat. Very sturdy looking and aesthetically pleasing. What I noticed for the C355 ceiling was what appeared to be a thermoformed piece of plastic, much like what you would see in a Hunter. Cost aside, I wonder how Catalina rationalizes in using this method of covering the cabin ceiling.
I agree. It was very rough and too me almost looked like a rough layup of fiberglass. I would think hard to keep clean and mold free and to me just looked unfinished.