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I imagine that within 5 or so years, most boats that have radar will have AIS.  But I'm curious about whether we're at the tipping point where it's used by a large percentage of other boats?  I sail on the Maine coast (lots of fog!), not more than 10 miles offshore, and have radar but haven't added AIS.  Thoughts?

Stu, thanks for the tip.

Ron, do you have a link, or could you post the Mainsheet tech article you wrote about installing an extra shelf over the vberth for charts?  Thanks

Dwayne - I live outside of Boston but keep our boat in Boothbay Harbor, Maine and do a lot of cruising down east from there.  I'm familiar with most of the coast from Boston on up.  Feel free to contact me directly if you want to chat.  Per Roland's note, CANE is a great resource.

Steve Saudek

Answering my earlier question, here's an excerpt of NOAH's reply to my comment: 

"The sunset effort will wind down and ultimately stop production of all traditional NOAA paper nautical charts by January 2025, but an alternative paper chart product is being developed that will be even more useful and up-to-date than existing, traditional paper nautical charts. The NOAA Custom Chart web application can create raster chart images that may then be printed to create ENC-based paper charts. A prototype of the web application is at https://devgis.charttools.noaa.gov/pod. Many improvements are planned for the prototype, but we are still interested in hearing suggestions for other enhancements."

...and when I click on that link, the prototype looks like it allows one to zoom in on the area you want to print and print it on your own printer, using various paper sizes.  So that doesn't work for most uses, but I'm sure there will be a commercially available source of good, hard copy charts.

Thanks for the information; I just wrote NOAA with my comment, which is to keep the hard copy.  Question, though: in the event that NOAA discontinues hard copy charts, is it likely that they'll be offered through private printers like Maptech?  (FWIW, I don't use Maptech chart books without a NOAA chart nearby, because the scale is not as useful.)

Our PO got the CD rudder so I haven't used anything else.  It looks weird but seems to steer fine.  Reverse is often a problem.  Picture attached.

I'm a little confused.  Yesterday, in an attempt to clean out the aft limber hole, I snaked some wire into it.   The wire went in effortlessly and I expected to see the end of the wire emerge into the main cabin bilge but it didn't.  I put about 12' of wire in and the distance from the limber hold to the main cabin is about 9' as the crow flies.

My question is, where did the wire go?  Earlier in this chain, Stu posted a picture of the drain hole -- http://www.c34.org/faq-pages/faq-drainhole.html -- which shows it going under the hull liner, if I'm interpreting it correctly.   I don't understand how the hull liner works relative to the bilge: would water going down the limber hole end up in the main bilge?  Any idea where the snake was going?  Thanks.

I don't have enough different headsail experience to comment on the size, but I second Ron Hill's comment about a foam luff.  I recently had one added to our 135 and it really improves the shape when roller reefing.

Totally agree.  Cosmetics are cosmetic, but non-skid strips are safe.

Dietrich - I'm not sure of the surface you're looking to modify, but fwiw...  I addressed the slip-sliding issue in the prime real estate that's in front of the ports by adding quarter-round strips on the bottom.  It's worked well.  See the attached photos.

I second all the earlier comments, and our MK II is fine with six in the cockpit, especially with the perches, which are the best seats in the house.  One caution with respect to single-handing is that the mainsheet and traveler controls are on the cabin, so if you single-hand a lot, you might want to adjust their fittings.  I recall there are some threads on the forum about single-handing.

I looked at a lot of comparable boats before choosing the C34 a few years ago, and this seemed the optimal mix of sailing performance, space, sensible layout and seaworthiness.  One other factor is the availability of virtually every replacement part on the boat.  Check out Catalina Direct: Catalina Yachts is in it for the long run.

Thanks all for your excellent ideas.  For better or worse, I have several months to plan this project before executing it.  I'll write a follow-up when it's done.

Steve

Okay, this may be in the category of "there IS such a thing as a dumb question," but bear with me because you all are a great source of ideas. Last season I installed a magazine rack over the nav table in order to store current charts, and it works great for accessing the charts.  But the charts are floppy, as you can see in the attached photo.  I'm considering putting a horizontal bungee cord above the rack, but that makes it kind of hard to extract a chart.  Ideas?  Thanks.

Soda blasting is a great way to remove the existing bottom paint and start with a clean slate.  There are several threads about that in this message board.  In 2014, it cost us $1,700.

Steve