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Thanks Dave,

Don't see any issues to date. Thanks for managing the site. I'm on some other Catalina forums and this one is definitely the best from user responses and experience.

FYI:The top two links:
Show unread posts since last visit.
Show new replies to your posts.

...still do not show well (white on gray).
I suspect that a change in the style sheet has caused this. (index.css)
Seems the ".catbg" class has overridden the anchor tag style for those links.

Hey Paul,

That's doing yard work on your cutlass, and not about "hauling". And a besides, once the yard pulls out the "heavy hammer", I'd worry. You shouldn't need it with a puller. I'm speaking from experience unfortunately. They forced my cutlass bearing out and in the process bent the original bronze shaft. I had to buy a stainless one at my own expense (glad to have stainless now tho).
Since no one seems to call you when they have an issue/problem, and they try to resolve it on their own (and they don't seem to know what to do), it seems you need to make all this clear ahead of time. I was luck my engine/gear were still OK.

Sorry, slight "yard work" diversion here.

What type do you have? Where do you keep your flares? Perhaps there? Do you have an emergency kit, for when you need to evacuate your boat? Perhaps there. If its a personal one, how about on/with your lifejacket. It's no good unless it's with you.

Agreed. Don't rely on a power tool like that in an emergency. In the sort of demasting weather, the waves will likely drown the tool, or the rolling/rocking action of the boat could cause you to grind yourself!

We keep long handled bolt cutter and a sharp hatchet on board, in on outside/cockpit locker.

Looks like the dinghy's painter. Probably slipped off of the foredeck. Definitely not the fastest way to sail.

Not a Naval Architect either, and while I'm sure that the hull does flex in multiple directions both in and out of the water ( on cradle), I'm thinking that the when on a cradle the primary flexing would be widthwise from the sides. Perhaps some lateral "sag" as most sterns hang aft of the cradle, but most of the weight is typically on the keel, so the length where the shaft sits is all "hanging" in the same section that could/would be sagging. (i.e it would all sag together, and thus the shaft would have little to nothing to worry about). Also, the shaft does not on its own, cantilever that much past the cutlass bearing.

Not sure, but this might be just some lawyer's legalese.?

I don't know of anyone in our marina that disconnects their shaft in the fall and then reconnects it in the spring.

Good God no. Never for hauling-out. And for that fact, not for "hauling" over land (i.e trucking the boat to a new location). Our C34 was "hauled" by truck, one from Sackets Harbor, NY to Midland, Ontario, placed on a cradle in the winter and then dropped in the water in the spring. The shaft was connected the whole time. Our C425 was trucked from Florida to Whitby, Ontario, dropped in the water and "hauled-out" several times, then "hauled" by truck to Midland, with the shaft connected the whole time.

So "no" on both types of "hauling". 

Hi Noah,

Where did you buy your Halotron extinguishers from? I'm trying to find a source here in Canada.

I second Patrice's comment. The first year we had our boat we had to run the engine to top off the batteries when we anchored. Typically once in the morning and again at dinner time, for about an hour or so. We found it noisy and didn't like disturbing the neighbours (if any were anchored in the vicinity). So when we looked around for a solution, I did look at one of the Honda 2000s and did like the fact that I could easily get shore power. However now things were going to be even noisier and I was also going to have to carry another fuel onboard (we row our dinghy). So, I looked at solar as a solution, but at the time mounting it was going to be an effort and delay our sailing time. We opted for a fuel cell trickle charger called eFOY (the Comfort 210). I mounted it forward in the port cockpit locker (C34 MKII), exhausted the CO2 exhaust into the cockpit and captured the distilled water into a bottle for topping up the batteries. It did what a solar panel would do but on cloudy days and during the night. It would only come on when it sensed the house batteries were low. It was not a generator and could not give loads of juice all at once, as some may be looking for, but it would silently maintain the battery.

On our new boat, we did install an arch which will do double duty as davits and mounting point for four solar panels. After all the sun is free and silent.

I'm not clear on what "from an abandoned C34" means. If the "abandoned C34" is still around, and if someone says the cradle is theirs then is the C34 really abandoned? If however the boat is trashed and the cradle is left over, then what the heck, offer to buy it! But if you're on someone elses cradle and they are asking for it back, then I can understand your predicament.

As the others have also posted, usually the marina can have a way to help out with stands or other "abandoned" cradles.

I forgot to mention that we had the  Marine Cradle Shop build it new for our C34, and had them deliver it to the marina in Midland, ON. Of course I  forgot how much  it cost us,... that's the admirals area.

Our current C425 came with a Marine Cradle Shop cradle. They have the spec.s for pretty much every pleasure craft you can think of. We've no complaints.

Alas, Westmarine left Canada a year ago. We have a lot of pissed boaters up here, cause its gotten harder to find stuff. Mostly we go online and buy from the Binnacle. There some smaller mom &pop shops in every city, but they're typically too small to have a complete invetory and often have to order in.

Here in Ontario, most of them get built by the Marine Cradle Shop. Just looking around our marina, I'd say about 80% of the cradles have the stamp on them. No harm in giving them a call, since youre  not that far away.

Ken, thanks so much for taking the time to check this out. Sorry I haven't got back sooner, it's been busy for me. The lugs are like the type in your photos. I originally tried the smaller #8 with a plastic collar in my hand crimper (but it only goes as large as #10) and I destroyed the lug and the wire was still loose, so no go.

I'm back up at the boat this weekend to do the winterizing, so I'll check back with the marine to see if their big crimper could do the #6, now that I know to look for a legend to explain the numbers. It still leaves me with figuring out how to do the #8s. I'm wondering if an auto shop would be something?

Thanks for the offer Ken. I'm sure shipping to Canada may be a bit pricey, and not sure about what would happen at the border these days. Below are a couple of pictures of my ratcheting crimper. If I could get dies for the next couple of sizes up that would be all I need. I bought it at Canadian Tire (MasterCraft brand), and they don't know of any additional dies that could go with it. I suspect its made for them by someone else, but not sure who.

Ben: I have concerns about the HF tool, based on the negative reviews and MaineSail's testing of it: (http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/battery_cables&page=3) Apparently the sizes are way off, and it comes with a 7 AWG? Never heard of that one before, but it doesn't matter, if the size they say a die is, is not. You would need to buy a whole bunch of lugs to test out on and figure out what was what. I'm too lazy for that, and maybe a bit cheap. 

Ken: Is the large crimper that you have like MaineSail's large one (FTZ 94284)? (http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/battery_cables&page=1) The reason I ask is that the marina had one like that, but no one on that day knew what sizes and it could do, and they all looked too big (to my eye). It also had numbers on it and not gauge size, so I also did not know how to translate what was what in sizes. Maybe I need to go back to them and try the 6 AWG with them?