S&S Catalina 38 for Transpac cruising?

U might have to upgrade the entertainment center !!

Looks like a very nice boat. The engine is not very big , but for me it would be ok.. The draft is 6.9 feet. as long as u can get where u are going thats ok..

I would put the radar on the mast and fill up the arc whit solarpanels.. And get an windless and a god anchor..

Coming from Skandinavia , the price is to god.

Dont know anything special about that type of boat but i would check the to rail / hull deck joint for any signs of leeks.. but i dont know if that is a problem on those boats.



I like the layout, simpel and open. I dont like carpets , but that is no big deal.. The two seats in the aft is a fantastic place to sit and watch your boat sail..

 

Experiences from an owner

Hope I can be of help to the thread and answer your questions, I have had my C38 for 3 years and cruise and offshore race with her. There were lots of comments about what to replace and fix in these older boats. My blog http://peregrine-cat38.blogspot.com/ details just about everything I have done in the last few years which is just about everything, there is very little left on the boat in original condition.

They do go to weather very well and they are squirley both upwind and down, when going upwind when she wants to round up hold on and correct hard same holds true for down wind. Phil posted our new rudder design and it was one of the best improvements we did this year. the extra bite from the additional six inches made a huge difference and is well worth the 3 second penalty that phrf hit us with.

This year we did the Oregon Offshore (first in class), Swiftsure (DNF - not enough wind to round the mark in the time limit), Coastal Cup (first in class) and Transpac. We lead our division (aloha) for five days before having to drop out due to a failure with our water maker. On the trip from Seattle to Long Beach we sucked up oil around Santa Barbara into the water maker and it failed during the race. 80% of our racing this year has been in winds over 20 knots and one night during the coastal cup over 30 and the boat is a bit of a handful but she is very stout and seaworthy you are paying attention the entire time your at the wheel. With that said like any boat the more you sail her the more you get to know her and after a few crazy shifts youre in tune with the rhytm and feel and can anticipate when she is going to come up or down, The C38 is built very stout her rig is almost bullet proof. I have not been worried about her ability to handle any of the weather or seas we have been in. Some things that I would change or add besides the rudder: Cockpit drains are lacking in their ability to quickly vacate the cockpit of large volumes of water, Im planning on adding two more aft out the transom. the companion way opening is large and indicitave of the catalina cruising heritage, not what you would expect to see on an offshore boat. However when one or two boards are in and the hatch secured there isnt a problem. the deck space along the side of the coach roof is very narrow. tankage is 35 gallons of fuel and standard 25 gallons in the bow of water, there are plans for an additional tank stbd for 20 gallons. We removed the bow tank and installed the stbd. there are 6 through hulls (Im working on getting that down to 3). As far as sail plan, we race with a carbon fiber #1 up to 12 knots, then the heavy 1 to 18, above that the #3 with a double reef. The #3, double reef combo also moves her at hull speed down wind in heavier winds. The main by itself is useless and really acts like a trim tab when fying a head sail. We fly both asym and sym based on conditions and both work well. Our syms are 190% of J and the boat can tend to roll quite abit with deep angles. We are able to exceed our polars without much effort (but we have an awesome rudder and amazing bottom) My keel stub and mast step were both okay, other boats have had problems.

When I bought her she was in sad shape and I was looking for a small project boat that I could cruise with the family and do some casual racing. As things progressed we got more serious in the racing. Had I been looking at the time for a race boat I probably would not have bought her opting for something sexier and faster, but becasue I also wanted a cruising boat that could go offshore I ended up with a boat that I was able to outfit the way that I wanted without taking out a second mortgage for something that was more serious. Im happy I got her and plan to keep her for sometime.

 

Thanks mate. That is probably the best C38 I have seen. You must have spent well over the purchase price on improvements, but it shows. Great job.

Would you say the new rudder has made it more controllable and less squirley? I watched your downwind vid in 20K and it reminded me exactly of the D35 I posted pics of. Its hard to see what the helmsman is doing in the vid (my younger bro), but its pretty much what the helmsman in your vid was doing. You need to be very active on the wheel turning hard both ways in anticipation of what the boat is going to do. Our auto pilot broke so we don't know how it would have handled the strong downwind conditions. How does the AP handle your C38? As a cruising boat this is important as I wont want to steer all the time. The D35 was very steady upwind however. It would steer with a bungy cord on the wheel upwind better than what we could! Which was good as our 2000km trip was mostly upwind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcHZRadmvxg&feature=player_profilepage

The boat is easy to control even when its that overpowered upwind you can see in the ocean through the saloon windows. Thats me having a ball steering. (no we didn't sail the whole way like this, the big genoa ripped in half anyway. Note the duct tape around the windows ). So the C38 would be much harder to control than this upwind?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-NkTP5P-w&feature=player_profilepage

 

The boat is at her best with the rail clear. She was designed to carry some rail meat an set up accordingly. 17-20 degrees of heel is just fine. keep the weight out of the ends when sailing hard to avoid roll coupling issues. My boat doesn't suffer from upwind problems, but I sailed on one that had six golfcart batteries in the aft laz and two forty pound propane cylinders and an outboard on the pushpit, and it was a rolly beast. Your video looks like about the limit to which I would trust my autopilot enough to go below and make a sandwich.

 

looks to be the same upwind, only difference is when that tumblehome catches a shoulder and digs in you know about it.

 

Peregrine rudder?

Hello Peregrine
where did you purchase your rudder?
I have hull 13; and pulling rudder now which is old design.
Thanks
Glenn
Bluenoseyachts at gmail dot com

 

see page one of this thread- phils foils. (different phil)

phil sweet
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