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1

Main Message Board / Fairclough group buy?

« on: August 25, 2021, 03:07:16 PM »

Purchasing a Fairclough cover for our C34 MKII and was wondering if anyone else would be interested.

Price was quoted to me as $4005 with the ability to store with the mast up or down. If you don’t store with your mast up, it’s about $750 less ($3250 ish). Price is good until 9/1. They also have the ability to add different features like extra doors, accommodations for dinghy davits, motor davits, radar masts, and other things.

In case you’re wondering I have no affiliation with Fairclough other than I really liked the cover I had for my C28.

2

Main Message Board / Electrical Routing or How I'm Ready to be in over my head. C34 MkII

« on: May 03, 2021, 07:24:04 AM »

How the heck do you get to the wires that come up behind the chart table and into the electrical panel?

After spending a couple of hours looking and re-looking over how I'm going to route power to the new autopilot I'm installing on the boat, I've come to the conclusion that I'm in over my head. But I'm also ready to admit than and move forward. Since I already installed an EV-100 on my Catalina28, I knew the steps involved, and none of them were overly complicated. The one thing that I wanted to do differently was to run a separate power feed to the autopilot instead of leeching off of the instruments' power like I did on the 28.

First step was to take a look that the pedestal wiring - something that tripped me up with the install on the 28. It looks like there's adequate space to route the extra wires, but everything is sealed in silicone. Not my favorite, but manageable. Next I traced the wires back to the electrical panel. At some point, they disappear behind some fiberglass and appear in the electrical panel. I can't seem to get to that part of the run, however.

A PO ran a new wire to a fan in the aft cabin, so I figured running another wire was doable. But I can't figure out how to get to the electrical wire once it goes back behind the nav table. There's a lot of holes where the cables come up into the electrical area, but where they go into the holes seems to be a completely inaccessible area. There are no messenger lines and no obvious screws, so I feel like I'm missing something completely obvious.

I looked in a bunch of the wiki and 101 articles as well as searching the website (you can imagine there are a lot of articles about electrical and wiring, so I haven't gone through them all), but i can't seem to find what I'm looking for. Is it just a matter of pulling new wires where an old wire exists now? I'd rather do some cleanup of the cable management here, that's why I'm looking for a way into this space.

3

Main Message Board / Crossthreaded handrails

« on: April 07, 2021, 09:22:25 AM »

Well, it looks like one of the PO’s cross threaded one of the bolt holes on the port side stainless hand rail. I have no idea how to fix this, other than to take it to a shop and have them redo it. I don’t have a tap and die set. If I got one, do I drill it out and make a bigger one, or can the existing threads be “reset”?

Thanks!

4

Main Message Board / Stereo removal

« on: March 08, 2021, 09:16:17 PM »

Clearly I am failing some sort of intelligence test.

In my C34, the Sony stereo is mounted in a black box on the port side, behind the settee, inside the aftmost cubby. The stereo is mounted to this box...in some fashion. If I take the two screws that are to the left and right, it frees up a wooden plate that the stereo is mounted to. There doesn't seem to be any way to slide that plate out of the cubby. The stereo appears to be attached to that front plate. I've taken off the front plate and all the screws I can find, and I can't seem to separate the stereo from this detachable front plate. I can feel some metal tabs that is keeing the case of the radio attached to the front plate, however there's no way of getting to all of them - there's just not enough clearance to get a tool in there. Nor can I figure out how this all got in here to begin with. My next step was to take a multi-tool to the front plate and cut the thing out.

Before doing that, I figure I would post here.

Thanks for your help...

Mark  #1488

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Main Message Board / Smiles and bedding compounds

« on: September 22, 2020, 01:08:28 PM »

Hmm... after reading all I could on this site about the C34 “smiles”, I finally went to the source and asked Gerry Douglas. He was very nice, but didn’t recommend bedding with anything flexible - including 5200. I was surprised by this answer. He said that it was originally bedded with polyester resin, but that vinylester would be ok too.

Anyway, It looks like the boat we’re looking at has the smile fore and aft. It doesn’t sound like this is a problem, but something that will have to be addressed eventually.

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Main Message Board / Might finally be joining you!

« on: September 04, 2020, 06:48:18 AM »

Just made an offer on a 2000 C34 MkII. So nervous and so excited. Can't wait to hear back from the seller. This wait is agonizing!

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Main Message Board / C34 Take Two

« on: July 28, 2020, 08:02:39 PM »

Looking at moving up from a C28 to a C34. Seems to check all the right boxes and improves all the things that are no longer a fit for us in the 28. Two adults and two teenagers means that we need three real berths - assuming we can get the cabin table up and down (I've heard they can be a problem sometimes). Looking forward to the much better upwind performance (even if we get the WK).

We started looking at the 34 a couple of years ago, but now has the CFO approval, so it might actually happen. We're looking at MK 1.5s, since the Mk2's are just barely out of our price range. Though there's a couple MK2 1997's in NJ for ~60k. If we could get those to negotiate down a bit, we might be able to get into a Mk. 2.

Can't believe how much information is here and it's made it a lot easier to understand the strengths of the C34 and how to do just about everything to the boat. It feels like you can't get much more of a boat in a Catalina without going up to the 40.

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Main Message Board / Hull number 1645

« on: June 24, 2019, 07:35:39 AM »

Still considering buying a C34 Mk II.

Does anyone know anything about this hull? I can't seem to find any mention of it here, or anywhere else on the internet. Hailing port is Bay Shore NY.

It's for sail, and I'm thinking about going to take a look at it. 2003 Catalina 34 MKII, std rig, wing keel. Haven't seen it in person yet, but I've seen other 34's from this seller and they price them to condition, so I'm guessing it's a good one.

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Main Message Board / Is the c34 right for us?

« on: April 13, 2018, 07:34:29 AM »

We are looking at wing keel Catalinas that can fit four adults and we're looking at the c34 as one of the options. We're upgrading from the "larger on the inside than the outside" c28. Are we barking up the wrong tree?

Needs:

• Large cockpit for entertaining while under sail (6 adults)
• Wing Keel (we want to stay in the same slip (5' draft, max)
• Single handing possible
• Wheel steering so guests can "sail"
• Practical storage (cockpit and galley)
• three sleeping areas
• Sitting area and bench (for the dog, of course!)

I realize asking this of c34 owners is a little biased, but there is a distinct lack of decent boats in my area right now. The choice is to wait until one becomes available or look at something else.