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The boat is on the hard and I'm actively beginning on below the waterline maintenance and repairs.
One project is to remove the thru hull just below the drain on the cooler. It is covered up by cabinet modifications and is now unusable, so I'm removing the thru hull and glassing it over.
I removed the ball valve and backed the nylon nut off to the top of the threads and gave it a tap with a rubber mallet.....and it just popped right out....heck, I could have just pushed it out of the hull with little effort, the sealant was just not holding on anymore.
It never leaked, but there wasn't much holding the water back either.
Given how easy it was to remove I decided to re-bed all of the other 5 thru hulls too.
Two more came out the same way, two were a bit more difficult and one required some real effort.
Sooooo....even if yours don't leak, if the sealant is anywhere near 35 years old, it should probably be on your to-do list upon your next haul out.

Kevin, Interesting that this seems to be as common as the Catalina Smile...I sure was alarmed when I first saw it but felt better once I'd grabbed hold of that strut and prop and found it to be solid with no wiggle whatsoever. We're Chesapeake Bay/Potomac River sailors and as such I did pick up a crab pot one time maybe year or so ago and I was wondering if that somehow caused the issue....

Noah, I do remember those pics you shared again. (thanks!!!) and knew the cracks are at the cutout for the strut mount. I'll be grinding it out tomorrow and will share the results here with pics. Interesting that it's just filler in there, I would think that the area should be ground out around the mounting area and glassed over so it wouldn't crack.....but if it's just fill, it will be an easy repair.

There's no indication of cracks inside or leaking inside of the hull.
I'm sure once the area is ground out I'll get a clearer picture and will post same at that time just to perhaps help someone who finds the same issue in the future on their boat.

That's an odd one. Probably not from any impact but I'm wondering...given that corners proximity to the hull if perhaps it was caused by the boat being blocked up at some time in the past and someone over tightened a stand and caused the hull to depress and put allot of pressure on that particular area...and then it cracked. I've seen some hulls depressed in this way and it's the only explanation I can come up with.
I'll be interested in what others offer up or if anyone has seen this before.

We had the boat hauled this past Thursday for some pretty extensive bottom work over the winter.
When I got to the yard on Friday, I immediately noticed these cracks weeping  moisture around the strut. Water is also seeping from around the strut itself.
I'm familiar with how the strut is attached from earlier posts but I'm not clear as to the fill method around it
Is it glassed in or was a filler applied to the area?
The strut itself is not loose at all and no water is leaking into the boat. Obviously I'll have to do some exploratory surgery but any knowledge/experience is certainly appreciated.

Robert,
Our shower drain pump was quite rotted and not working when we bought the boat in 2019. I replaced it with a Whale Gulper 220 (can't remember where we bought it from but it's widely available)
and it's working just fine to date.

Dan,
We did very similar work to our boat in the year or so after we purchased her. I love seeing your progress and I can speak from personal experience that you're just going to love the finished product. Our boat looks practically brand new down below and is such an improvement over what we started with. (smells much better too) 

Only hard shifting when using the cable? Sounds like you need to check the cable itself. On a previous boat with a Yanmar the shifter cable housing had worn at a radius and it was hard to work.
I installed a new cable that made all the difference.
Checking that lever bushing on the shifter itself is also a very good suggestion.

Rob, you echo my thoughts exactly. Propane would end up deep in the bilge (well below the blower motor pickup) as well as behind the engine so this ventilation seems to be aimed more at the gasoline vapor ventilation that KW brings up.
I'm still going to examine the compartment to see if there is a good way to ventilate the area better......It doesn't appear this has been a concern in the past based on the lack of posts regarding this subject.
Maybe worth the effort...maybe not, we'll see.

Rod,
Giving your replies a good bit of thought I'm inclined to agree that this problem may have been of my own making. I've never had to worry about using a spanner wrench when tightening the nut on the B+ post anytime in the past....but honestly, this explanation makes sense. I also hope this thread helps folks figure out something like this in the future.....it really is quite frustrating.

I'm also going to take a hard look at the cable itself as it is not attached to the engine anywhere other than the B+ post and I'm wondering if when the motor vibrates at lower RPM's it is actually working the post around inside the alternator. Once I get back to reinstalling the alternator I'll address this possibility and report back on the findings.

By some chance might you have one of the original 70A rectifiers and a B+ post assembly for the AMPIT-100-ER available? I'd very happily purchase it from you rather than attempt to source it elsewhere.

Hey Rod, there was no model number on the old one, I ended up using a DR5042 as a replacement.
I've been quite careful when tightening anything on the alternator, I didn't want a repeat....I didn't see any evidence of loctite on the nut for the rectifier but I'm curious if that would be something to avoid...or is it a good idea?
My battery bank is four Trojan 6V batteries.

This is on my list of things to tackle, so hoping you get responses.  In addition to the heat, there's a significant diesel smell in the cabin - after 37 years, the cushions, although in great shape, have a smell we're unable to remove.  We removed a couple of the cushion covers and tried Tide, Borax, Nature's Miracle - all with no luck.  And the smell of the foam - eek!

Pete, when we bought Ohana she had been pretty neglected over the years, one of the problems we encountered was an oily/diesel smell that permeated everything below. My wife recovered all the interior cushions and thoroughly washed all the foam and there is no hint of the old pungent smell anymore. It took a while to dry the foam out but it was worth it IMHO. While I had the interior woodwork completely removed I also washed the bilge out, there had been a pretty big oil spill down there and the entire bilge was coated with a dry black film....a rather oily dry film. With the flooring removed this wasn't as nasty or tough a job as it might sound.

Ron, I believe I do know where that business is!!! Perhaps I'll give them a shot.

KW, I did not find any evidence of Loctite on it the first time this happened, but when I reassembled it I did put a second nut on it this last time and tensioned it against the first to "lock" it in place.

Kevin,
Well...that's a possibility regarding venting gas fumes....but I don't think I've ever heard of a C34 that was supplied with a gas motor, the first boats came with a M25 diesel, correct?
I just wonder why Catalina would have continued supplying these boats (for years) with a system that wasn't relevant. That's just an easily eliminated cost for the manufacturer.
My thoughts were to run the blower motor on hot days when it will run for hours on end and thereby help remove excess heat from the engine compartment. Perhaps the blower can't handle the heat....and if that's the case I'll eliminate it myself. 

Our boats come with a blower motor that seems rather useless. The original 3" vent hose(s) run down to below the aft cabin bunk and just end....even when the motor has been running you can start the blower motor and it's only sucking cool air.
Has anyone found a good way to route the pickup for the blower motor to somewhere near the top of the engine compartment?
My thoughts are that this will help reduce the temp in there and that cannot be a bad thing. We sail on the Potomac/Chesapeake and the temps here can reach the mid to upper 90's in the summer so any extra cooling cannot be a bad thing.
Anyone out there done something about this in the past???? I couldn't find anything on any earlier posts addressing this specific topic.