Catalina is one of the few manufacturers from that era still in
business. It's not that they made/make especially great boats, but they
make good ones for a competetive price that fit a broad market well. I
think of them as the Chevy of boats. Their primary design purpose is
day sailing and weekends or perhaps week long trips. Perfect for
cruising the channel islands. They are very forgiving, easy to sail
boats with lots of reserve. There is another recent thread you might
want to read in which I relate my experience in a 40 kt gale while
crossing the Sea of Cortez. I think the subject is "Catalina 30".

Speaking of Catalinas, there seem to be a lot of them around in So
Cal, and
at first sight prices seem to be driven down by the supply ... yes?

I'm not sure I'd say that. Boat prices in general are pretty depressed
right now. The fact that there are a lot of them around is a plus. It
means that there are a lot of people out there with type specific
knowledge.

This can be an incredible resource.

Comparing the experiances of my friend with his Mason and me with my
Tayana 37 (two substantially similar vessels), using other peoples
expertice is a wonderful thing. I recently had to replace my 100 gal
water tank in the bilge. Before I even started, I had a set of photos
in my hand (taken of the internet) of someone doing exactly the same
thing, along with a dialog of what to watch out for.

My case was exceptional, but selling mine couldn't have been easier. A
couple of days after I bought the Tayana, I got a phone call from an
acquaintence who had recently sold his boat and was sorta familiar with
Still Clueless (my Catalina) and what I had done with it. "Hey Dan, I
here you got a new boat. Wanna sell your old one?" We came up with a
price we could both agree on and that was it! I didn't even have to
freshen the varnish on the teak.

Especially as a first boat, an older used one makes a lot of sense.
It's already depreciated all it's going to, it's cheap enough so that
when you make your mistakes, it's not going to cost too much.

One piece of advice I offer people is that the time to fall in love with
a boat is AFTER you own it. Doing so while you are shopping for a boat
can blind you to their faults and make you pay WAAAAYYY too much.
Always be prepared to walk away from the deal. Especially in this
market, there are lots of others out there.

Good luck - Dan

Lefty wrote:
Dan Best wrote:

Lefty wrote:


What do you all think are good old boats for such a plan? I'm
thinking sub-30 feet to keep slips and aux expenses down.

Any number of them. To keep it chea... er, uh, as inexpensive as
possible (which the tenor of your note seems to indicate is a
priority), you'll be looking at boats from the 70's. By definition,
these are going to be rather high milage boats.


It's not so much a case of "as inexpensive as possible!", as finding out
"how inexpensive is possible?" :-) For a good boat, not something tired,
broken, hacked, or sad.

Maybe I could spend more, but if there are good boats that are "underpriced"
on the market, that would be good to know. That kind of thing.

That last issue of Good Old Boat had a bit on the Sabre 28 (I think that's
right, I don't have it handy) being inducted into some kind of design Hall
of Fame. As I window shop stuff like that is fun to know.

Speaking of Catalinas, there seem to be a lot of them around in So Cal, and
at first sight prices seem to be driven down by the supply ... yes?