Messages

Set2sea,

I was very apprehensive about drilling holes in our hull but ultimately mounting the arch where we did turned out to be a great fit for us. I wanted the arch mounted outside of the pushpit because the cockpit area is a little tight already on the 34 MKI. I also wanted to make sure it would be clear of the fuel fill and stern cleats.  Working with Atlantic they pointed out the mounting the arch on the hull as we did would put the bolts in shear which is much stronger. We mounted the arch ourselves in a day and I'm sure that now that I've installed one I could do it in a couple of hours. Honestly, the hardest part was working up the courage to drill a bunch of holes in our boat. I really like that it holds our dinghy high out of the water and we always keep the dinghy on the davits when sailing no matter the weather and it is very secure. Our solar panel is a 300 watt as memory serves and that has proven to be plenty for our needs but I could very easily put two full-size panels on the arch. I really like our ridged solar panel and you can get very powerful panels at a fraction of the cost of flexible ones. Another thing I really like is my batteries are always fully charged even while on the hard during the winter. I have some close-up pictures of how we mounted the arch somewhere on one of my computers and I'll see what I can find and post them here.

We are in the process of buying another boat and the very first thing we plan on doing is installing an Atlantic Arch on it. I can't begin to tell you how happy we have been with with this upgrade.

I'm not planning on leaving the forum and we will still have our 34 at least until my son comes up with a large stack of the green folding stuff. Even then you'll still have to put up with me, the knowledge base here is way too valuable to ignore.

I have to say that we absolutely love our 34 and she has been a fantastic boat for us and has never let us down. During the summer we spend about a month in the North Channel and then shorter trips which tend to run for a week or two at a time. We have plans on cutting the lines in a year and plan to sail full time to little islands with palm trees. We felt that in some ways our 34 might not be the best boat for us for that purpose even though we certainly have seen a number of people doing just that in much less capable boats. A few things we wish we had would be more storage, water tankage, and a walk through transom. There are a few other minor things but those are the bigger ones.

So...we made an offer which was accepted on a Beneteau 440. She is the 2 cabin model which we really like the layout of. She's a very clean boat and has very low hours on her. The survey is scheduled for next week and we are expecting that to go very well. We actually saw the boat a couple of years ago while visiting my son at his marina and it just stood out as a boat someone took very good care of. Anyway, long story short it came up for sale and we were really impressed how clean it really was when we looked at it. We talked about it and threw out a low ball offer which we never expected to be accepted but of course, it was. We learned recently that the owner was in a position that he really needed to sell but I won't go into that here.

So I'm finding that I'm more apprehensive than excited. Our 34 is going to my son and I've threatened his very life if he hurts our baby. The one thing that really has me so apprehensive is I'm finding the support for Beneteau's is nowhere near the support for Catalinas. The support I have found here has been amazing!!! There hasn't been a question about any part of our boat that hasn't been answered and there is so much information available that I received answers to questions I didn't even know to ask. Catalina yachts have been so helpful every time I've called them and I even received an email the other day from them asking how things turned out after the damage we suffered last year turned out and if they could be of any more help. What I am fast finding out is there isn't anywhere near the same kind of support when it comes to Beneteau.

We'll see how it all turns out and I'll let you all know. As for now I still own our 34 and you can rest assured that it isn't going anywhere until I'm comfortible with this 44.

If you follow the link above you'll see the Atlantic Arch we put on our mark I. Hands down it was one of the best things we did and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Our Atlantic Tower is what they call a "tower in a box". They come in various sizes and Atlantic Towers was very helpful in picking the right size for us and answered all my stupid questions. Ours is schedule 80 aluminum and is solid as a rock. As memory serves I believe we paid $2300 on sale which included shipping. Installation was a breeze and they have a ton of accessories so you customize it just about any way you want. The only thing to watch out for is to make sure you watch out for the clearance for the mounting bolts because of the location of the storage area in the aft berth on the MKI. But you all know that story...measure a lot of times, drink a stiff shot before you drill holes in your hull. We did relocate the aft nav light on the arch because the dinghy blocks the one mounted on the pushpit.

It's very easy to raise and lower the dinghy and after we lower it into the water we use one of the blocks to lower the outboard. Two people are helpful but it's no big deal for one person either.

Lazybone,

I don't know about you folks from Maryland. I heard a rumor that you folks put salt in your water. Us folks from Michigan will put salt on our fries, heck some even put it on watermelon but, putting salt in the water? That ain't right. :-)

A friend of ours had an Oday which I believe was a 28' but I could be wrong on the size. He sold it last summer and just shared some rather shocking news. The new owner let him know that water had gotten into the pad support posts on the cradle and one of them had ice build-up inside and it expanded and raised the pad like a hydraulic ram about 5 inches which then put a 3 foot crack in the hull. Now I really don't know anything about the construction of Odays or the condition of the hull except to say that our friend had it for years and sailed the snot out of it without any problems that we are aware of.

He's going to send me some pictures and I'll post those when I get them.

Obviously not a Catalina but I thought it was worth passing this on.

We went with an Atlantic tower with built-in davits and absolutely love it. Holds the dinghy very securely and high out of the water and is very easy to raise and lower using Garhauer blocks. It supports our solar as well and is rock solid. We are considering another boat and this would be the very first thing we add to it.

I would like to apologize to all of you for not providing the end of this story. The findings were that the boat had been placed to far aft in the cradle which put all of the weight on the very front of the keel which caused the crack in the hull. The roller furling foil was bent beyond repair and needed to be replaced. Four of the stanchions were also bent and replaced. Thank God for West Bay Boat Works, they came to our marina and performed all of the repairs in just a few days and did an amazing job. We were on a bit of a time crunch as we were scheduled to depart for the North Channel on the second week of June and West Bay Boat Works made sure that everything was finished in plenty of time.

The total cost of repairs was $8400.00

On a side note, we have Progressive Insurance and they were very prompt and took very good care of us.

We did store the boat at the same place this winter and we supervised their work. They did take great care making sure the boat was placed in the cradle properly and that the cradle was supported with the bow up.

Paul,

This is also on my to do list and was wondering if you went with the 10:1 kit and how do you like it?

Kent

I'm meeting with the insurance adjuster this morning and hopefully I'll know more by the end of the day. They are talking about having someone from a local boatyard that has a very good reputation take a look at it. They are talking about hiring a crane to come in and drop the rigging and then having it trucked to Traverse City to be repaired. The really big question is the cost of repairs, if the repairs cost to much than I guess they will total the boat. We are praying it can be repaired. But it sure looks like our plans to sail the North Channel again this year are going to have to be put on hold. What a mess!!!

Jon W,

According to our insurance adjuster the yard is responsible for the damage and they will be going after them for the cost of repair...hopefully it can be.

Hopefully the pictures come out, I'm somewhat impaired when it comes to resizing them.


To answer a few questions. We were there when the boat was pulled out of the water and we pointed out that it was set on the cradle to far aft and it would have to be moved forward in the cradle which we assured they would take care of. It was the end of the day and the boat was going to be by the travel lift until the next day. I had to leave the next morning and was going to be out of state for an extended period and my better half said she would check on the boat. A couple of days later she informed me that it didn't look like they had reset the boat on the cradle and where they placed it, it looked to be bow down. I contacted the yard and told them that it was imperative that it be placed bow up and was assured they would take care of it. Last year it was stored very slightly bow down and we had about an inch of ice that had frozen in the cockpit and I explained that it can not be stored that way again. Again I told them in no uncertain terms to make sure it was bow up when it was stored this last year. The owner said that it didn't matter because it would be shrink wrapped and I again told them that I was paying for it and I wanted it done right.

By the time I got back to check on the boat the weather had moved in and because of all the ice and snow the tug couldn't get to the boat to move it. I told them that this was unacceptable and they told me that because of the slight grade in the yard they couldn't get it bow up. I told them that all they had to do was set the boat down and move the tug around and back the boat in and it would have been bow up because of the grade. They said that would have been a lot of work and I told them it's also a lot of money. We had a very bad winter here in northern Michigan and once the weather set in there was nothing that could be done. We received so much snow that Lake Michigan is up 11 inches from last year.

So anyway the short version is the insurance adjuster will be coming out this week and I've hired a surveyor to inspect it and give us an estimate on the cost of repairs if it can be repaired.

So we went to the boat yesterday to remove the shrink wrap and get started on our boat projects and are absolutely sickened by what we found.

We have insisted that the boat be stored level or at least stored with the bow slightly elevated so if the shrink wrap were to leak water would be able to drain out of the cockpit. What we found was the boat was placed on the cradle to far aft which caused it to sit bow down. It was also placed on a grade which further placed the bow in a downward position. We found the keel was only supported at the most forward point and that a 4x4 post had been jammed between the cradle and the bow just forward of the keel. The shrink wrap had a 5 foot hole in it right over the cockpit and we found the cockpit had so much water in it that it had been draining into the boat through the forward portlight of the aft berth. The shrink wrap had collapsed at the bow and was filled with about 50 gal of water which caused the shrink wrap to tear away from the bow putting all that pressure against the foil of the roller furler bending it to the point that it will have to be replaced. The stanchions had not been cross supported and 4 of our brand new stanchions are now pretty badly bent. To say the least I was pretty angry at this point but what we found inside sent me right over the edge.

We found that the brand new house bank batteries were comply flat and the solar charge controller had gone into a self protect mode and shut itself off. The battery selector switch was in the off position and we were wondering what could have pulled the house bank down. The bilge pump switch was in the auto position and I wondered if water had gotten into the bilge and the pump could have drained the batteries. I really thought that it was more likely that pump would have frozen and blown the breaker. When I checked the bilge I found it was flooded all the way to the floor boards and was clear in color. We always make sure the bulge is completely dry and then add a couple gallons of antifreeze to protect the bilge pump just in case so why would the water be clear unless so much water had entered the boat that the antifreeze ended up being pumped overboard.

About this time I noticed the door that accesses the hot water tank was ajar and would not close. The covers for the battery bank and dry storage at the forward end of the settee had also popped out of position and now wouldn't fit. I also found water under the v-berth and couldn't figure out how or why there would be water in there. I keep my tools in the dry storage locker under the settee and when I went to get a few tools I found the locker was flooded but not with water but with water and antifreeze apparently from the bulge. Considering that this area is sealed off from the bilge I really started to get worried and my worst fears were justified. I found a large crack in the forward bulkhead and along the stringer which allowed water and antifreeze to enter the locker. I took a screwdriver and climbed out of the boat to tap along the hull to see if there could possibly be any delamination and to my horror I found a crack in the hull just forward of the keel where that 4x4 post had been jammed against the hull and water and antifreeze was leaking through the hull. The crack is in the keel stub and is not a Catalina smile but higher than that. Needless to say I was sicken by what I found.

We talked with the marina owners who took a rather oh well kind of attitude. I'm waiting to hear back from the insurance company and will be contacting a surveyor to come out and take a look. I will let you all know what they find as soon as I know more.

We had a foot long crack in our forward water tank and we were simply going to replace it however the $200.00 shipping cost for a new tank seemed a bit crazy so I bought a Hobie - Kc Welder Pro and polyethylene rod and welded it up. It worked great and after a year not a drop has leaked.