Messages

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!!

Hi Roc,
The preference is to transfer the name from the 34 to the new boat, but only if it doesn't impact the sale of the 34.
The kids, and myself, like the name.

Not sure if a special ritual will be required!

Fred, I would like to add my congratulations as well! Sounds very similar to our situation as we loved our 320, and were not necessarily shopping but once we came across the 355 we had to have it!
As for the name, we used the same name as our old boat (no II or anything) and it is not a problem to leave the name on the old as well. If the new owner chooses to change the name, that's up to them.
The only glitch we had was the state got confused the first year in terms of collecting excise tax, however it was cleared up with a phone call!
Congratulations and enjoy!

Ken, that's the hard way.

Easier?

I sent Solstice a pm, suggesting he look at the "101 Topics" which includes all the info one needs to do so.

Posting Photos 101  http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3701.0.html

Thanks Stu, I always check the 101 Topics if there is something I'm having trouble with. Mea culpa, it is another Catalina site that I was having trouble with.
I am quite computer literate and have some pretty sophisticated tools, but it was a royal pain so I just gave up...my bad....
Will post the pics when I have a chance...Thanks all

The boat has 2-8Ds as house bank, just forward of the companion way steps, under the floor boards, and another 8D under the forward berth floor for the windlass. There is room for an optional start battery under floor near the electrical panel/nav area. .................
...................
...................

Forgetting the switching for a moment, it would be interesting to determine if the battery tray depth is enough to accommodate the taller golf cart batteries.  As we've learned from Maine Sail, 8Ds are not true deep cycle batteries.  They are also darned heavy.  One of the C355 skippers has redone his boat with golf carts.  IIRC, he had some depth issues to deal with, but managed to do it.

Hi Stu,
That was me...have switched out my factory 4D's to Rolls 6Vs. Thankfully no problem with height. If I can figure out how to shrink the size of pics for posting I will.
As for the switch, that is for the Starter. All 5 series have this. Not sure if it is an ABYC recommendation these days, but the idea is to be able to kill the starter if it sticks.

Hi Noah,

We dock our 355 in a 30' slip and before that our 320. Our slip has no pilings, so I built a simple PVC mid ship line holder. I tried to post a pic but could not compress the size enough to post. If you send me a PM, I'll be happy to send you some photos.

If you are in the market for a new Genny, then adding a foam/rope luff is a worthwhile investment. North uses the rope option and they are removable. Since the reality is that unless you are racing and have a full suit of sails, you will reef. A padded luff along with adjustable genoa cars makes a big difference in terms of minimizing the compromise that is reefing. You can also ask your sailmaker to put a couple of vertical reef lines on the foot of the genny so you know where the optimal reef size is. For example, on a 135, your sailmaker will probably suggest marks at 110 and possibly 100.

Stu is right, the metal bowl is designed for filters in an engine room. My 355 has a dedicated filter locker and came with a metal bowl. The very first thing I did is switch it out for a plastic bowl. I want to be able to see what my fuel looks like at a glance. I don't have the height for a 500 series, so I use a 20T sized filter.

Mike,
As you see, lots of good choices. Another thing to consider is whether you want to integrate your other electronics and is Wifi important to you. Although it is possible to integrate instruments from other vendors, it is not that straightforward. I have used Garmin, B&G and RM and just replaced my 4 year old RM with a new one because Wifi is important to me and I have a full complement of RM systems. For me, wifi allows me to remotely plan routes, download updates and use my ipad as a true repeater down below. Here are my two cents:
--All things being equal, I still think the Garmin is most intuitive
--B&G has some impressive options for sailors, primarily racers
--RM has come a long way in terms of support and intuitiveness, especially since Flir bought them. There Tech forum is a wealth of information and I have also used their phone support recently--answered with a few rings. No more 45 minute waits. The other thing to consider is that they offer free vector and raster charts now along with their free lighthouse charts.
So, all things being equal, if I were to choose a stand alone CP, it would be Garmin. If I was building an entire system from scratch, I would seriously consider B&G, and with an all RM system, the RM is a good choice. Do consider wifi functionality (they all offer it) if not for now, for future use...Good luck and happy shopping.

I also installed the Smartplug on my 355 a couple of weeks ago (thanks Ken!) and I agree that the installation is very straightforward and it is clearly a well made product. However, I do agree that the strain relief is the weakest part of the SP. As there is already 'strain' on the plastic backing from the 3 wires, having the backing plate screw into plastic threads is not ideal. I do plan on sending them a note as an FYI although I have a feeling they probably already know. Plugged in for the first time yesterday--highly recommend!

I also use Lanocote in many areas like my stuffing box and the screws that hold the raw water impeller plate to the pump. However, for all hoses I've been using Oatley Rea-Tuff. It stays in paste form, so it makes hose removal easy and is impervious to fuel and has a high heat tolerance. It is especially useful for fuel connections. Racor for example explicitly advices against using teflon tape. Maine Sail has also spoken highly of the product, so I've felt confident using it for everything from plumbing to engine hoses. You can get it at the Big Box stores and it lasts forever...

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hercules-8-oz-Real-Tuff-Thread-Sealant-156202/100112544

The California built boats had their canvas done in house and the Florida boats from JSI. I know that both Catalina and JSI tend to be very leary of providing canvas to boats without measuring, but you may want to give the factory a call and see what they say....

Since I won't be sending the fittings back for welding from British Columbia I wonder if anyone has come up with a clever idea for creating  a "bumper" either on the coaming or on the cam cleat fitting itself?

John,
I had the same issue on my C320 and I used these http://www.nowearguard.com/ They are Marine Grade Stainless strips and they work well as long as you remove every trace of wax where you apply them so the adhesive sticks. I also would put a couple of wraps of the control line around the cam when storing.
Although this isn't a problem on my 355, I have used the wear guards for the area of my coaming where the jib sheet comes to the winch.
Hope this helps...

I suspect another reason they have capacity is because when they switched to the 5 Series, they went from making an entire range of sizes to just 5.

We have also used Evernote for about 3 years. It's single best feature is being able to upload all of the boat manuals and other helpful PDF's and have them available at all times (like boat shows). Being able to keep photo albums of boat projects is also very helpful. We still keep a Maintenance log binder on the boat, but EN is a great compliment! It's also OS agnostic so I can use on my Windows PC, iPad or Android phone....oh and it's free....

A couple of other things to be aware of when it comes to antifreeze.
If you are going to only use the -50 (pink), don't buy it at the Big Box stores or places like Wally World--As Maine Sail pointed out last year, these formulations contain E-Alcohol which is not a good thing. I personally use the -60 for the water lines and the -100 for the engine. However, last season WM started carrying -200 and I used this last year and will again this year--what's great about this product is that it is $5 CHEAPER than the -100. It is in limited quantities so call your store first.
Finally, PS just did a review on potable AF and found both the Pure Oceans (WM) and Starbrite to be best in terms of purity and stated strength...