[C38] 1982 Catalina 38 Shoal Draft?

[tdtron at earthlink.net]

Hello Ed,

I owned shoal draft #95 for about 17 yrs and it is a great sailing boat.  I didn't race mine but I'm told the standard draft will point slightly higher but I had no complaints on how we pointed.  I often had crew from other brands and all were amazed at our performance.  One guy even said my boat was faster than his Catalina 42 but we have no way to know if that was true since his boat was on the right coast of Florida and mine was on the left coast.

The shoal version is heavier and was originally more expensive than the standard version (extra 800 lbs of lead?) but the center of gravity is about the same because of the shallow draft of the shoal version.  The shoal version also has a longer keel stub making it much more forgiving on grounding.

The extra weight of the shoal draft version may slow the boat in most conditions but I think it may have helped us going to weather in rough seas.  I have sailed side by side with other 38's going to weather in a slop and we seemed to punch through waves better the other boats.

We didn't race this boat and our sailing area was Tampa Bay and the surrounding west coast of Florida and the Keys so we needed the shoal draft.  Most of our favorite anchorages were about 6' deep and some as low as 5' which made us bounce in and out on the waves at low tides but at least we could do it.

If draft was no object and you were sure you would never ground, I would think the deep draft would be a slightly better performer but as I mentioned, if I had owned a standard draft vessel, I couldn't have enjoyed all the gunkholes over these years.

There were two shoal designs and I do not know when they made the change but my 1981 version had the propeller shaft cutlass bearing encased in a skeg that was and extension of the keel stub.  I think this was to both eliminate the cutlass bearing strut and also to add some more lateral resistance.  Some models, either before or after mine, used a conventional cutlass strut like the standard draft version.

One caveat to look for if you do purchase a shoal draft Catalina 38 is to make sure it is a true shoal draft and not a deep fin that someone took a saw to.  The modified versions can be tender and lack lateral resistance for good performance.  There are some bulb keel modifications that have bulbs added to the shortened keels to improve both lateral resistance as well as ballast but these still don't have the more robust keel stub of the factory shoal draft versions.  The "Catalina Smile" , which you will probably hear about, was not as prevalent on the shoal draft keels because of the longer keel stub where the keel mates to the hull.

Good luck,

Tom Troncalli


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ed Radtke 
To: listserve at catalina38.org
Sent: 7/24/2012 4:49:22 PM 
Subject: [C38] 1982 Catalina 38 Shoal Draft?




I'm very interested in buying a 1982 38' Catalina S&S ShoalDraft in great shape. It's lived in freshwater in Dallas but I would haul it to the Gulf at Corpus Christi. I can find almost NO info about this 4'-11" shoal draft FINkeel (its not even a wing keel) and I'm concerned about why there are so few of these that seem to exist. Virtually all the 38 Catalinas from that era are the 6'-9" fin keels. Does anyone have experience on the coast with one of these ShoalDraft versions? The current owners have taken amazing care of their freshwater boat and it sails nicely on their lake, but I need to be certain it'll perform in the Gulf. Any thoughts appreciated, thanks.
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