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I just got out of the boatyard with a new PSS dripless shaft seal and a new flex-o-fold two bladed (15x10) prop.  I expected a little more vibration because my previous prop was a fixed 3 blade 15x9.  While it is nothing drastic that would stop me from using the boat in the short term, when motoring I feel like I get a lot more vibration, especially in the cockpit and sometimes the backstay, now than I did before. My crew has noticed it as well.  Any suggestions of what can be done to reduce the vibration and how I might be able to tell if it is a real long term problem or just normal with a two bladed prop? 

The new prop is delivering propulsion just fine and is definitely reducing drag when under sail.  Right now, I plan to go back to the folks that did the work at the boatyard and see if they will ride along and give me their opinion, but I thought I would see if any other c34 owners have had experience with this. 

Thanks,
Eric

Can we get an idea how old these halyards were.
It would be good preventive maintence information.

I wish I could tell you exactly how old the halyard is, but the boat is almost 3 years old to me and it came with the halyards.  So I can only say older than 3 years which probably isn't too helpful. The line looked in pretty good shape to me and it was the splice at the shackle that gave way. 

There is a factor you might want to consider that is different on my boat than other c34s.  I have a motorized winch that I use to raise the main (I have a boom furling main sail), so we may have been putting a little more stress on that splice to try to get every last millimeter of sail area than most folks raising the sail with human power would have, but it worked for 3 years, so it still might have been just fatigue on that splice. 

A revving eye spice is nice, but electrical tape overlapped, wrapped around and tapered, should work fine too. BTW - I am in San Diego too, and would love to meet up sometime! I am At SDYC slip A-23.
- Noah

Noah, I would enjoy meeting up with you sometime.  I am located at the Marriott Marina downtown.  Also, I am not sure if you are aware, but there is a Catalina owners club in San Diego http://sdcatalinaassoc.com/.  Another good way to meet fellow Catalina owners in town that you might want to check out. 

As I was taking the boat out for a beer can race this evening, we had just finished raising the main sail and then the main halyard snapped and fell into the mast.  I was able to remove the exit plate and pull the line out of the mast, but I am going to need to be able to run a new halyard without the benefit of using the previous halyard as a threading line.  I read some advice on forums about using bicycle chain, magnets, and some other clever ideas to run the line properly.  Has anyone else ever had a similar problem?  Any suggestions or advice are appreciated. 

Thanks,
Eric 

Thank you very much for the advice guys.  I have heard good things about Ullman Sails from quite a few people now, so I plan to take my sail to their local loft and see what they recommend. 

-Eric

My genoa needs at least a new UV cover.   I am not necessarily going to go back to the maker of this sail, but the previous owner bought the sail and I should probably know what brand of sail it is.  I don't see any other markings on the sail. 

Thanks,
Eric   

I finally replaced the plastic levers on Awesome with stainless steel.  I prevented the gear shift from hitting the pedestal guard in a slightly different way than I've seen posted, but some of the other suggestions might be better. 

Accessing the rear of the engine from the aft berth access panel, you can see that the cable that goes to the gear shift lever is held in place by a bracket.  If you loosen that bracket you can shift the cable forward or backward and give yourself a little extra room for the gear shift lever. There is only a small part of the cable that is protected by a metal casing that the bracket can be tightened on, but it was just enough for us to make an adjustment that left about a quarter inch before the lever would run into the guard. 

-Eric

Thanks again, Mike.  I will try keeping on top of Alfredo first since I have already contacted him.  I have moved to the Marriott Marina in San Diego Bay. 

-Eric

Hi Mike,

I talked to your recommendation Alfredo at Quality Marine about servicing my engine and was going to ask him about the levers as well.   If you have any additional recommendations for mechanics that would be great. 

Thanks,
Eric

Kevin,

I have been sticking with the plastic gear shift and have not completed the project because I am not completely comfortable doing it myself, but I did look into what I think would need to be done. 

If you remove the compass from the pedestal so that you can see what the gear shift is attached to you will see that it is attached to a cable that I believe goes to the transmission.  You would need to adjust the position of that cable relative to the position of the lever so that the neutral position has the lever a little further back.  Since I haven't actually attempted to do this you can take this idea for what it's worth (which may not be much). 

I have an additional problem that my throttle lever screw has seized, so it is going to take a lot of work to remove it and tools that I don't have.  I have broken a ton of cobalt drill bits trying to drill it out, so I have decided to look into having a professional do both parts of this project for me.  I plan to see if the company that is going to do my yearly engine service soon will also replace the gear and throttle handles and make any necessary adjustments so that the lever shifts properly. 

So while I do own two metal replacement levers, I am still running with the old plastic ones until I can find a safe and effective way to replace them. 

-Eric

Be careful when you replace the gear shift levers.  This was one of the first boat projects that I undertook when I bought my boat and I thought I had successfully replaced my plastic gear shift with the new metal one.  However, it turned out that the new metal lever did not get all the way into forward gear before it ran into the guard.  I really wish I had figured that out before backing my boat from the slip into the fairway...      It is really hard to get the boat to go where you want in a narrow fairway with only reverse and neutral. 

We were able to back the boat out into the bay without running into anything and thankfully I still had the old levers and screws and I reinstalled the plastic gear shift.  Anyway, for some, there may be more work than just attaching a new throttle lever to make this change.   

-Eric

When I do a search on our site using the search icon along the top, for the last few months I get a message from Google that my machine is sending automated messages and no search is possible. It happens with my old laptop and desktop. Just got a new laptop, first thing I checked was search funtion. Same deal. Machine is too new to be infected, problem with our site? I miss the search function, very helpful.

I have the same issue. I can search the forum OK, using it's search feature, but the google search gives me the same error.  I bet a lot of people have this issue, but usually use the forum search once they are logged in instead of the google search.  I have never been able to use the google search located here: http://www.c34.org/c34-search.html 

-Eric

-Eric

I just cracked one of one mine. 

What took ya so long?   

I am pretty talented.     I haven't even owned the boat a year yet. 

I just cracked one of one mine.  So I would be interested also.   

The previous owner of my boat created a wooden plaque with the number engraved and mounted it under the center drawer in the v-berth.

Congratulations Ed!

Looks like a great boat.  I bought my '88 in Marina Del Rey and moved it down in July.  We are growing the c34 population here in San Diego.  This forum is one of the great reasons to own one, so much information and support is available.   

...And I don't have any foot problems, thanks. (knocking on wood) 

-Eric