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I won't swear by it (and I'm not a chemist), but I'm pretty sure most laser printer film is PET (it is according to 3M), most likely BoPET (Mylar). It needs to be for the high heat of the machine. They are probably coated with something.  It is quite strong. I use it at work for vacuum windows 4" in diameter.

We bought ours at Staples (8-1/2x11 transparency film). Singles are a buck each.
T

I can think of a few things that might do this. First of all, are you running off of batteries or a power supply (one of the mods discussed on this forum)? If you are running off of a power supply then I would suspect its thermal cutout circuit or the relay. Run off of battery and see whether it fixes the problem.

If you are running off of batteries and only the lighting is affected, then I would suspect the breaker or the wire to or from the breaker. Could also be the return wire common to the lights. Sounds like it could be a bad connection which is resistive,  gets hot and disconnects, cools reconnects. Does it happen faster when 2 lights are on? You eliminate some of the possibilities by running the lights off of another breaker (temporarily) and see whether the problem is resolved. If it is, the problem is the breaker or on the battery side of the breaker. If not, on the light side of the breaker.

If more than the lighting is affected and you've only noticed it on the lighting, the problem is between the batteries and the breaker panel.

I'm sure you've thought of these things already. Good luck.

Kevin- We've noticed the same thing on 2nd Wish. In our case there seems to be 2 issues. 1) Sail track fouling (near the boom) due to a recent mast repainting and 2) binding at the base of the mast near the turning block. Can you raise the sail easily by hand at the mast? If so, the problem is the turning block or further back. If not, the sail track or mast sheave. Our surveyor recommended replacing the turning block with a ball bearing type- 1987 model has no bearing. Its on the list...
T

From the lower photo in: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6042.0.html, you can get a good idea of the space available on the 1987 MKI. You can use the bolt size (5/16) or the bolt separation (2-3/4") or the bolt separation of the pulpit base, for scale. We had the same concern about the 4-bolt pattern, which is why we went with the 2-bolt variety. I've seen other C34s with the 4-bolt base, but I don't recall the year. I would caution you not to take another boat as a measure of your own, since there is obvious variation even within a model year. When we were laying out our bow project, we noticed the port-starboard pulpit bases differ in their distance from the bow by the better part of an inch!
T

Ron- After reading your post I was concerned. I confess, I never actually measured the cleats. I did order 8 inch cleats and that is what is invoiced. I went back and looked at the high resolution versions of the photos, and using the 5/16 bolts for scale, was able to deduce that the bolt separation is 2-3/4 inches (which is exactly what C-D specified). From that separation as scale, I looked at the top photo and measured 8.02 inches (p-m 0.5 inches) for the for the cleat size. Len will measure this week to be sure, but I'm confident they are 8 inch cleats.   

T

Here are the promised photos. I put a digital camera where my head wouldn't fit and got photos of the backing plates. In the second photo you can see the starboard plate with the clearance hole forward. The plates are 1/4 inch, even though it doesn't look like it. You can also see the OEM washer installation of the bow pulpit.

Ron- How do you solder the heavy gauge wires? A torch? Flux? What do you do to protect the the insulation?
Thanks in advance.
T

The cleat installation was part of a windlass install, which is really driving the decision making. We carefully looked at different anchor approaches, including keeping the existing bow rollers. We are fortunate to have 5 different C34's on our dock so we were able to compare all of them. In the end we decided the best install would be the one similar to Ron's- there is a good example of it on the dock. One significant advantage for us is that we currently have a large Danforth anchor, with the new bow roller we can use it and eventually upgrade to the Rocna. The toy bow roller can't be easily used with the Danforth. We would very much like to keep the large cleat, but the new bow roller (also purchased from CD) looks like it will preclude it. Even if we can squeeze the new hardware past, there is not much room left to make it very useful. We have the bow roller and Len will do dry fitting over the next couple of days. If he can save the cleat, I'm sure he will.

As far as epoxy goes- we used West G-flex, which is similar to the standard West product, but with a little more flexibility. W-M sells a $25 repair kit with syringes, thickener and mixers, so we went that way. One of the holes was not adequately sealed on the bottom and ran out (operator error) so I used Marine-Tex to fill that one (the core had been well sealed with the G-flex).

As far as photos go. I'll take some this weekend. Should have taken some in the process. I will for the bow roller.   

We just added these cleats last weekend. We also bought the $33 aluminum ones from Catalina Direct. We tried something different than the common wisdom. I found that I could reach the forward bolt location on both sides through the existing OEM Beckson plate . So instead of using a backing plate and nuts, we had the backing plate made from 1/4" 316 stainless, with tapped holes (roughly $10 each). That way I could hold the plate in place while getting the aft bolt in (figuring any hole I don't have to cut in the deck is better than one I do).  We started the job by drilling the deck and dry fitting. We then overdrilled, sealed the core with epoxy (the wood was actually bone dry after 23 years) and filled the holes. Redrilled to proper size and dry fit. The port side worked just fine, but the starboard holes were a little too sloppy, so it was difficult to get both bolts in. We eventually gave up and drilled a clearance hole in the backing plate for the forward bolt and used a nut there. Still it worked fine. Then used a liberal amount of 4200 (after taping the deck) on the deck and bolt, pressed, lifted, added more 4200, including under the screw head. Tightened.   We used 4 inch SS philips head flat bolts, 3-1/2 would have been fine. Let the whole thing dry a few days and cleaned off the excess. It was not easy getting my arm in there without the additional Beckson plate, but I am not particularly long-armed, nor am I a professional contortionist (although I seem to play one on weekends). In the end, I actually found I could reach all four bolts, but it would have been very difficult to get a nut on the aft bolt. Old cleat removal and bow roller installation next weekend...

Thanks for the advice. The boat certainly was sluggish in starting, ie not enough cranking power, but I thought it was unrelated to the "fire and die" aspect. Maybe they were related. I didn't notice a particularly large amount of smoke coming out, but the description of one cylinder firing and it not having enough to keep going sure sounds like what might have happened. I checked but did not replace the fuse holder when I did the wiring harness upgrade.

The slow cranking had been a problem on 2nd Wish for a while. When we replaced the harness this summer, we cleaned and tightened most of the battery terminals as well. The cranking improved dramatically. The fact that it seems to have returned to it old ways might indicate that something has worked loose or requires cleaning (we used Boeing terminal moisture inhibitor, perhaps it has a limited service life?).

We'll just keep monitoring the problem and see whether it continues.
Thanks for the advice
T

Hi All- Went to start the engine today and an odd thing happened. Wanted to see if anyone else has had this experience...
Engine was a little slow in starting (that's not the mystery), but when it kicked in, it ran for about 1 second and stopped (the mystery). Repeated (cranked for just a couple of seconds).did it again. Third time, I kept the starter depressed for a second or two after the first combustion occurred, and then the engine ran. The engine started just fine after the sail, without the shenanigans. I haven't seen this behavior before. Cold weather thing? Something to be concerned about?. BTW, engine is an M25XP , ~1100 hours

Todd

Thanks to all for the feedback.
lazybone- Does the grease from the upper bearing find its way out and make a mess or does it stay put? What grease do you use?

Ron- Your suggestion was the repair we made. The 4 mil mylar we used was laser printer transparency film available from Staples for $1 a sheet. Wrapped it around the shaft, marked it, cut it to the correct size, dry lubed both sides and worked it down between the shaft and tube. Should have taken a picture of it, 'cause now it is where it will never see the light of day. I looked for a Tech note, but didn't find one. A question for you though- You did mention in a Tech Note that you clamp the shaft below the quadrant to prevent an accident when removing the cap. I can't see how the shaft can move more than a couple of inches down with the quadrant in place. The upper bearing is almost a foot long, so the shaft can't go anywhere on our boat. Were there different configurations on the Mark I's?
Todd

We had noticed increased play in the rudder bearing recently (audible thuds on a port tack), lateral motion of the shaft.. Removed the post cap this weekend and installed a custom shim (aka mylar transparency film) per suggestion on another Catalina forum. We used some dry teflon lubricant and with a little fiddling, got the shim in the upper bearing. Went for a sail today in 15 knot wind 2-3ft seas, no thuds. Question for the forum- On my old Coronado 27, the rudder shaft had a zerk installed so it could be greased. It limited wear on the post/bearing and provided modest water penetration resistance. Has anyone tried this on a Catalina? Looks like it would be easy to drill and tap a small hole in upper bearing (when the rudder is out), screw in a zerk and grease as needed. Sound stupid?

Lance- They are in Whittier and they are closed on Fridays. They also have a web page.
T