Hey from Smith Mountain Lake, VA

[HoldenCoalfield]

New owner of an '83 27 Catalina tall rig. Took possession of her on Friday. Been unattended for a few years but she came clean pretty well. Been reading on here for years, took good advice to stop dreaming and start doing, got a laser, learned how to drive it, read as much as I could, used the simulators and e-regattas. Stepped right up to this.

[noelex 77]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the Catalina.

[HoldenCoalfield]

I hope to race it and maybe some cove camping. It never had an engine - just the merc tohatsu in the well got it started and it peed right away - worried because of the amount of mud dauber nests I removed from inside. Never had a name. Sparely appointed. Pretty much a strictly regatta used boat. Topside paint shows plenty of traffic wear, but all feels really solid except for the anchor locker hatch which I will with replace or re-core myself. Lines look kind of tired, but everyone says a little soft scrub and they'll be OK. There's a spare set, so I guess I'll replace what's there, clean what comes off and see what I can keep.

[HoldenCoalfield]

So after a week of reading all about these boats and terrifying myself about all the impending doom, I'm a lot more at ease.

here's my self survey, lol

Got in the bilge which had an inch or two of water in it and it came white and clean. I then looked forward of the bilge to the little wall formed to isolate the compression post block.

I busted that out and got a good look at the block. At first, about an inch of crap came out that wasn't total mush, but wouldn't support anything. About an inch in, I realized that was a layer of plywood and behind that was a wooden block that was a little wet and mushy around the edges, but still solid I vacuumed all the debris out and poked around pretty hard with an ice pick until I wasn't able to drive it in more than a quarter in with a lot of force. That is still about six inches from the post, So it is still looks strong enough to be supporting the post. I plan to replace that block with some sort of synthetic casting. Above the post , there is no sign of any water intrusion, stress or cracking.

The keel bolts all look like shiny new stainless. and the bilge floor bounces a heavy screwdriver all the same, so I'm not seeing that stubber rot, or I'm not looking the right way at the dock. Again I also used the icepick to poke as hard as I could. I did note the technique of the keel bolts bedding application was that it looked like whoever did it, took a dollop of adhesive near each one and folded it over a part of the washer to lock it.

As far as I can tell, the standing rigging looks OK. I did the meathook test all over as far as I could reach and luckily for my hands that was clean. there wasn't any discoloration or galling or difference that I could see. I figure that will get upgraded later to Dyneema because I can splice and DYI

The deck mounts for the stanchions and shrouds all sound solid except for one stanchion, but it doesn't move at all. The deck around all of them looks perfect with no cracks.

The gate valves have all been replaced with seacocks.

The chainplates look pretty good and the bulkheads look pretty good, but the bottom of the starboard one has rotted away. and it looks from some light stain tracks like some water was made it's way alongside both of them at some point. But it's not bad. I plan to pull both bulk heads and replace those and their plates. Gonna attack them with the icepick and see how imminent that is.

Looking up the mast, it looks like the port spreader is raked a little aft. That must be that cast aluminum foot I've heard so much about. No sailing til that's repaired(anyone got a stainless spreader post refit kit I can have?). The weather vane is a little cockeyed. I think a big bird sits on it a lot or something. It's taller than those around it.

Alcohol stove works. I swear I might have been the first person to light it in 40 years

No engine issues. No engine.

< PS. Sure is nice to see an actual boat here

[Adelie]

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