Messages

Fred,

The whole cabinet in the aft is only held on with six screws.  They are located just under the flip top.  One of them is visible on the left side in the picture.  You may need to "tap" the upper part of the cabinet with a rubber hammer since it may be stuck to the varnish.  Keep track of where the screws came from as some are different sizes.  After you remove the cover over the shaft log the whole cabinet should come out giving you very good access to the aft of the engine.


John

You may want to check for a leak in the heat exchanger

John

Lance,

Rusty who responded earlier, and I both live in Gulf Breeze, FL.  near Pensacola.  Like Rusty, I just have the internal strainers for the engine cooling and the A/C unit.  So far (11 years and 11,000 km) I have never had any problems with the inlets plugging.  There have been numerous times where the strainers would get full of sea grass and need to be cleaned, but that can be done from inside the boat.  The pictures that Mainsail showed are very similar to ones I have seen here with external strainers.  My suggestion would be to not worry about an external strainer and just keep the internal ones clean.  If that doesn't work then you can always add an external one later.

Looking forward to meeting you when you get down here.

John

Catalina Direct carries a LED replacement for that light.  Just installed one on our boat and the light is better than the halogen version.  http://www.catalinadirect.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=2043   Their model number is Z2772.

John

Lance,

Welcome back to Florida.  One of the concerns in the Ft Walton / Destin area is the bridges.  The Brooks Bridge at Ft. Walton is 48' and the Destin bridge is not even 48'.  Rusty and I both have our masts cut down to fit under the bridges.  There are 50' bridges at Navarre and the Dupont bridge east of Panama City.  There are some marinas in Pensacola that allow live a boards.

Fleet 8 has kind of morphed into the Gulf Coast Catalina Cruisers.  There is a link to me at the website and you are welcome to get with Rusty or me anytime for more specific local information.

John

Rusty,

I put in four golf cart batteries to replace the two D-4 s that were origional.  Had to modify the box as did the one shown in reply #14.  You are welcome to come over and take a look to get ideas.  I also totally agree on having a box for the batteries.

John

Steve,

Our previous boat had a Harken roller furling system that had a zipper the length of the luff.  It also had a bolt rope of sorts that ran for around 1/3 the length of the luff centered halfway between the tack and head of the sail.  The idea was the middle would start to furl first which would tend to flatten the sail and remove much of the bag that happens when you furl a conventional sail.  The system worked well for us.  You may have one of the Harken units on your boat.

John

John,

Last year I had to change out the Shakespeare antenna on our Mk II after only three years of service.  The connectors were all fine.  A quick way to check the coax and connectors would be to have someone disconnect the antenna at the masthead and using an ohm meter check for an open circuit at the end of the coax that goes into the VHF in the cabin.  If there is anything other than an open circut you have a problem in the coax or a connector.  Then have them short across the center of the connector at the masthead and the outside of the connector and it should show a short down below at the meter with just a few ohms of resistance that is in the cable normally.

John

Roc,

Just checked ours and it is the same as yours.  The glass is quite thick in that area and it could well have a plate inbedded in it.  Ours has not become loose or showing any signs of leakage. 

John

Paulus,

We towed our '85' swing keel Catalina 25 many miles with our full size 4x4 Chevy Blazer.  If possible get at least a 3/4 ton 4x4 long wheel base truck.  Our boat and trailer combined weighed out at 7200 lbs.  The Blazer would do the job but it was maxed out.  4x4 is very useful for getting up grassy / slimy boat ramps with the four wheel low range so there is little effort.  Watch the tongue weight.  We had to have more then the usual 10% of the trailer weight on the tongue to keep the trailer steady.  Still you will find 55-60 mph is about all you want to go.  Depending on the keel type you will need an extension for the tongue at most ramps. For the swing and wing keels there are sliding extensions available that work well.  However, for a full keel you will need to have some sort of wheel system on the tongue and a long cable to ease the boat down the ramp and pull it out.

John

Our 2003 MK II leaked from the start.  Finally took out all the factory caulk and resealed with Dow Corning 739.  There wasn't any filler in the gap just the not so good factory caulk that had not bonded to the sides of the gap.  One of the local boatyards recommended the 739 and it has worked well.  A couple of suggestions though.  Be sure and clean the sides of the gap, lightly sand the sides to give a better grip, wipe with Alcohol and be sure the 739 is unopened and not expired. 

John

Kent,
This spring I also had the experience of filling my fuel tank and then the gauge staying at full.  Went through the various tests and they showed the sender to be the problem.  Changed out the sender and the gauge still showed full.  Then got a new gauge from Seaward Products (part number 1853.1 - $61.52 including freight and taxes) and that solved my problem.  As a side note, for some reason I had been getting eratic tack readings and changing out the gauge solved that problem.  I had checked out all the usual suspects such as bad connections and grounds and could not find anything wrong.  When I hooked a sender directly to the old gauge at the panel and moved the float, the gauge would travel from "F" to above "F".  You would suspect the sender as being the problem as Stu suggested but it is not always the case.  My old sender would show some lack of smoothness with an ohm meter so it was also getting tired.

Hope this helps.

John

The Bimini on our 34 came with straps and we quickly changed them out for struts.  Our setup is similar to the picture that Tony enclosed but we also replaced the forward strap with a horizontal bar across the upper part of the V in the bracing.  The straps always seemed to be in the way when loading and boarding.  With the addition of the additional horizontal bar you keep the side entrance clear along with not needing any more holes in the boat.

John

Our 34 has 10" four bolt cleats and I need every bit of the 10 inches when I secure her with the multiple lines for hurricane preparation.  If you can fit the 10" cleats They would be a good investment along the Gulf.

John

Jim,

This Groco wrench works very well on the cover for the emergency tiller.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=11151&partNumber=4493367&langId=-1

John