Topics

My boat yard limits cradle width to 7' No jack stands allowed.

Is there a typical cradle width?

Good afternoon everyone. I toured a 1992 C34 this week and had some findings and photos I'd like to post for your feedback. If you would be so kind. I'll post as a series of responses to this leading posts.

Thank you for your help.

Can someone lead me through some key points in buying a boat through a broker?

Does one call, discuss the boat and make an offer contingent upon financing, purchaser inspection, survey and sea trial?

Does one do that after purchaser inspection?

I would like a brief tutorial before I stumble forward.

Thank you,

TMAC

I must say that I'm a bit flummoxed by this long distance boat shopping.  I found one boat that checked all our boxes about 11 hours away. We were interested enough that I would have considered driving out there. Fortunately the broker gave me a survey, or I should say partial survey because the purchaser stopped the survey based on immediate findings. The boat had clear evidence of a serious grounding. When I asked the broker he said "no groundings were reported"

There are a couple of other boats for sale about 8 hours away, but I have no interest in driving to these places if they can be vetted remotely.

I've come up with a list of preliminary question and photo requests, but I wonder if they'd be taken seriously. What do you think?

Is there a current survey
Has this always been a fresh water boat
Age of Sails
Age of Standing Rigging
Photo of keel
Known evidence of Catalina "Smile"
Evidence of rot at mast step
Engine Hours
Last replacement of cutlass bearing
Has head been replaced
Have holding tanks been replaced
Has the hot water tank and hoses been replaced
Is there a maintenance log
Have the traveler bolts been thru-bolted (pre-1988)
Has the alternator bracket been replaced (M25 21hp Universal, pre 1988)
Has the wiring harness been upgraded as recommended by Catalina
Have bronze steering idler pins been replaced with stainless (Year of concern?)
Has the filtering screen on the fuel pick up hose been removed
Have stanchions and chain plates been re-bedded
Close up photographs of all deck penetration (stanchions, chainplates, hatches, portholes,) both outside and inside where accessible.
Close up photos of keel stub and keel to hull transitions fore and aft

Does anybody here have any experience with shipping a C34? Something may have caught my eye. I would need to have it shipped from Duluth to Milwaukee. That's about 400 miles.

Also does anybody know the overall height of the boat from the bottom of the keel to the top of the cabin.  Thank you

Prefer something in Lake Michigan since our home port is South Haven, but can make Lake Huron or maybe even Lake St. Clair work.

Thanks.

Hello!

New to the forum, so please bear with me.

We are considering moving up to a C34.  Most likely a MK 1, though we'd love a MK 1.5.  The primary factor is having two completely private berths so that we can have friends and family cruise with us for long weekends.

We've never sailed a C34.

I'm wondering if someone is up for taking us out for a test sail.  We live in SE Michigan, but keep our boat in South Haven Michigan so a trip to the west side of the state would be easy.

Dinner and drinks would be on us.

I hate that we are in a world that it needs to be mentioned but we have received our Covid vaccinations.

Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

The crew of s/v Solace