[C38] things to look for on a boat of this age?

[Steve Smolinske]

Bought an 85 last year, replaced all the seacocks and thru hulls with brass,  Mine were so loose they pushed right out of the boat with very little effort.  replaced the cutlass bearing and prop shaft, balanced the prop.  Catalina Smile.  Replaced all the standing rigging, most of the running and had the mast and boom rewired and painted.  replaced masthead lights and vhf antenna, they fell apart upon touch.  replaced the rudder post cap which was cracked. resealed the chain plates, took out all of the ports and resealed, replaced all the gaskets on all the hatches.  rebed the stanchions which leaked like a sive.  Currently in the process of rebuilding the traveler car and replacing select deck hardware and blocks. Replaced all of the wiring with the exception of the engine wiring. My sink in the head had a nasty habit of backing up when the sump pump was turned on so I installed a ball valve to close off the sink when emptying the sump.  Replaced the head hoses which have a life of ten years. When replacing the standing rigging check the bolts holding the tangs to the mast, mine were cut half way through from the days of wire halyards.   After all that then the fun projects started Then I added up the bills and the cost of the boat and wondered why I didnt buy a bigger boat....LOL. My blog has an entry of all the projects at the bottom of the home page, Im sure I left some out here.  

________________________________

From: listserve-bounces at catalina38.org on behalf of phil
Sent: Wed 4/1/2009 9:27 PM
To: listserve at catalina38.org
Subject: [C38] things to look for on a boat of this age?



Smooth moves,

I recently bought an '82 and had it surveyed (not neccessariy in that order). Some hidden things were rotten mast step, very tired masthead sheave box, mast conduit disintergrating, tabbing below aft lower stays loose.  The load on the aft lower stays takes a long, complicated path to the hull.  When I finally got her back in the water and all tuned up, the tabbing gave up. Diesel cooling routed per factory- which is BAD- rerout the water heater to the pump bypass loop. Some of the hoses on the diesel got painted at the factory, and I mistook them for hard pipe.  These gave up on me hours after launch. ( I thought I had replaced EVERY hose).  The tiny spingwire-type hose clamps on the injector return hoses should be replaced with real clamps. They can be hard to find this small. You can't crank even the smallest overlapping hoseclamps down this small. you need to use the old-fashioned C-shaped kind.  The deck coring forward of the anchor locker hatch- right at the bow- was shot (no backing plates for cleats or anchor roller!) Lube all your seacocks, even if they are Marlon.  There's (supposed to be) a small pencil zinc in the diesel's heat exchanger.  Check out your shaft strut as soon as it comes out of the water.  Mine was a bit wobbly, but miraculously tightened itself up after a while.  Now that it is back in the water, it is all loosey-goosey again. One other anoyance- my new standing rigging, sized the same as the old stuff, didn't fit between the jaws in the top of the backstay adjuster!  The eye was fatter.  Check your bowplate for cracking very closely.  Mine was severly dammaged, probably from docking maneuvers. Have your backstay adjuster checked out too.
  Now- let us know what you find!

--
Phil Sweet

Cat38 158 Our Tern
Key Largo, Fl.


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