Messages

Yeah I can see this now...

Admiral: "Honey, can we put this vase in the boat?  Can you think of any way to keep it from falling over?"
Me: Thinks of that post he saw on c34... something about museum wax... yeah that's it...  "Nope, can't be done."

Hope you guys aren't still using blue/formaldehyde based chems in your head.  The purple/green/orange/natural ones work so much better.

This is what the broker said:

The forestay tang needs to take the load in a up and down direction and should be OK.  I don't see any loss of structural integrity in the tang itself, just the weld that attaches it to the section that the sail tacks to.  Seeing that you have roller furling the sail tack section does not even have a load on it.  That said, I would definitely have a rigger take a look at it and see what he has to say.

Any thoughts?  I'm thinking we're ok for a little 10-15 knot harbor cruise tomorrow, but will have a rigger check it out I guess.  Now to try and find a good rigger.

So would I call a rigger, or a marine welder, or should I contact Catalina for a replacement part?

When we had the boat hauled for a survey, we had to disconnect the backstay.  Now at certain speeds/points of sail the boat hums--pretty loud.  Could the backstay tension be off?

Here's some more pics
Other side

Front view

Was cleaning the stainless on the boat today and came across this crack.  The other side has a matching crack.

So my questions are:
1) What is this part called?  It's where the forestay attaches at the bow
2) How risky is it to go out in light air (10-15 knots)
3) Can this be repaired by welding it, or do I have to replace it?  Do you have it welded on the boat or do I have to remove it?  (Looks like it would be a bitch of a project to remove)

I opened up the binnacle yesterday and didn't see anything amiss.  I'm going to check at the transmission next.

Here's the only picture of the pedestal I have.  I'm going to the boat tomorrow so I'll try and get a better one.

The 1 is the gear shift lever.
The 2 points to the approx location of where the hole was enlarged.

I've never been inside a pedestal before, but I drilled the hole in the white aluminum, definitely not stainless.

That's my dad driving the new boat... and yes he has pants on.

Is the plastic bracket in the pedestal?  The only thing I did on the pedestal is enlarge a hole on the starboard side to accommodate the autopilot motor wire + the new controller wire (just had the motor wire before). 

Still shaking down the "new to me" boat.  The engine usually shifted from reverse to neutral to forward with very short throws, and even felt like there were indents for the different gears.

Today I threw the boat in reverse after I stopped the motor and it felt like something gave way, and the reverse lever now moves too far back (even though it still works).

I recently installed an autopilot and ran cables down the starboard side of the pedestal, but that's where the old cable was so I wouldn't think that would break anything.

Before I dig out everything in the aft cabin (aka storage area right now), do you think I need to be looking at the transmission side or will I need to open up the pedestal to figure out what's going on?  I want to make sure something isn't about to give way and then I'll be stuck unable to shift the boat at the wrong time.

I don't want to run any wires across the cabin top, so I think I'm going to go with one of those 48 LED UFO Tent lights and see how that works.  That way when I need it I can just hang it up and otherwise it can be stowed and out of the way.

Thanks for the link exodus.  That's kind of what I was thinking.  How much light does it put out?   It would be nice to find a lower cost alternative.  I'm thinking I need a light where you mentioned, high on the galley side, then another one high on the nav station side, and then figure something out to hang off the mast perhaps to light the table. 

I just upgraded from a cat 27 and WOW love the 34.

We are you happy owners of a new (to us) 1991 Cat 34.  I've been searching the forums for all kinds of good info, but one thing I haven't found much info on is what to do about lighting in the salon.

The first day we were working on cleaning the boat out and once the sun went down it was really too dark to do anything.

If I turn the cabin lights on, we get lighting along the sides of the boat.  There is no overhead lighting at all.  It would be tough to use the galley or have lighting at the table, since the light is limited to the edges of the boat.

What do you guys do for lighting?  I don't really want to stick battery powered hockey pucks to the cabin top!