I still have to figure out how I am going to design these pages, I expect them to grow quite a bit and have LOTS of pictures, so bear with me while I work out a design.
She is home and MINE ! I picked her up on Friday the 6th. I did not enjoy a few things, the owner made me put my truck much deeper into the water than I would like and then it did not tow as well as I would like. But the owner left the motor on the stern and so did I, that along with the gas tank and anchor and chain in the rear locker was too much weight in the stern of the boat. I think it will tow fine with the motor and all that weight up front. 11 hours on the freeway today was no fun. Spent the weekend making space for the boat in the driveway and cleaning. I did not like the way the previous owner de-rigged the boat for trailering, it caused some damage that I luckily caught before it was serious. Basically the rear strap that holds the boat onto the trailer was flapping against the hull and also the shrouds which he left attached were flapping against the cabin sides and started damaging the gel coat. I have a habit of stopping after a few miles when I tow something to double check everything and caught it all in time. I purchased some masking tape and fixed it all for the trip home by protecting the gel coat with the tape. Its not the way I would normally de-rig but I assumed he knew what he was doing. I will figure out what to remove and what not to remove. I did not like have to bend the foil into the cabin for the roller furling but that is what he told me to do. The instructions clearly state keep it straight and lash it to the mast, but then the sail will flap so there has to be a better way. Either way she is mine and home.
Well, today is Oct. 2 2006 and I purchased my Catalina 18 today, it felt good and I am anxious to go pick it up later this week. First some details...
I have been thinking about another boat for quite some time now and thinking of a Coronado 15 and even considered a Hobie 14, the salesman very strongly suggested a Catalina 22 and I accidentally brought home a Catalina 18 advert as well and I liked that boat. The saleman told me to forget the 18 and go for the 22 as it is a much nicer and bigger boat for very little more money. But I liked the 18 because I felt I could talk my wife into letting my buy one since it would be less expensive and being smaller I felt it would be easier to rig/unrig and trailer. I have a big truck so I am not worried about the act of trailering but launching and retrieving was a concern with the wing keel, I however 22 or 18 it would be a wing keel, no centerboard for this puppy. I also read where 22 owners were proud if they could rig their boat in an hour, that would spoil my daysails and more importantly my favorite, night sails. I went all over the web and read all I could find about both the 22 and the 18 and I will get into details later.
Saturday, Sept. 30 2006 my wife and I discussed it and decided to drive to San Diego and look at this Catalina 18 that I had found in Craigslist, it was not cheap like the other boats I had considered but it was so new (only 11 months old) and $6,000 off from new boat price that I felt it could be the right boat. I still had never seen a 18 so I hoped it was worth the 4 hour drive, it turned out to be a 5 hour drive. Once we got there, I was very impressed, its a "cute" little boat, I kept saying what a sweet boat it was, more stable than I expected at the dock with 2 grown men on the rail and quite a bit more room than I ever expected down below. After some talking the owner suggested a "test sail", it was a gorgeous day for it but I actually declined the first time he suggested it. I assumed the boat would sail well enough and I was uncomfortable taking it for a sail if my wife was not "serious" about letting me purchase it, we had been talking much less expensive boats, boats in the less than $1,500 range and this was a huge step up. I also had not yet decided if I wanted a work boat or a pleasure boat. I like what I call "work boats" where you are constantly sailing on the edge, near capsizing and hiking out but I am not the young man I used to be also and this cabin would be a welcome advantage. On the second suggestion from the seller I said "ok, lets go" and off we went for about 45 minutes I guess. What a sweet little boat, easily handled and yet a bigger boat feel than I expected, immediately I was concerned I still had not decided if I wanted a big boat or small boat but this was NICE. We got back and the wife gave me a "thumbs up" indicating ok. And started talking numbers with the seller, he wanted to keep the motor but I did not want to spend the $1,500 for a new motor and he was not dropping the price enough for me to go buy a motor. Eventually we settled on $300 more than his asking price but I get to keep the brand new 4 month old motor. I came home and thought about it, crunched numbers, etc. and called him today and purchased it.
This page and other pages here will detail it all as I get to know my new boat, so come back often. For now, she may not be a Downeast 32 but she is mine and best part is she is trailerable, I can take her places in a day that would have taken days to sail and of course places I could only dream about before like local lakes.
Its terrible, my wife and daughter took pics of me sailing the 18 and before I even purchased the boat, I already have more pics of the 18 than I do my Downeaster and I owned that magnificent boat for 17 1/2 years. Anyway the above 3 pictures are just a sampling of the dozen+ pics taken, I have to figure a way to "design" this page and show the rest in a nice format.
I have lots of questions about the Catalina 18, I know that on the 22 you are supposed to torque the keel bolts every season but I did not find the keel boats on the 18, I found one rod sticking out that no nuts on it. I assume they are under the battery that I did not remove. Also this boat has some wiring issues as the owner made some electrical additions at a level that is shall we say, lower quality than my usual standard of work. So when the boat gets here, I will be posting lots of questions to the Yahoo mailing list by the way, I have only been a member of this list a week now and its AWESOME, I strongly recommend you join it if you are even remotely interested in the Catalina 18. Now we wait for the boat to get here, most likely this Friday (Oct. 6 2006). |
