I noticed a topic on another forum regarding a problem with their internal outhaul system. Personally, I don't like the internal system especially on older Catalina's. On every Catalina I boarded for sail trim instruction, I first looked at 2 items --- the fairleads were first and the second was the outhaul. In a vast majority of the boats I visited the fairleads were frozen in place and the skipper told me the outhaul didn't function. Within one minute I determine part of the reason for the owners poor sail trim performance. With the outhaul broken and stuck in place along with the frozen fairleads, the owners sail trim was like the broken clock -- it was correct for one point of sail and wind condition and wrong for all others.
My Catalina 30's outhaul was broken when I purchased the boat. One day I had enough and decided to remove the boom and bring it home for repair. My first problem was I was driving my wife's 4 door company car at the time. No problem -- I thought I could make it fit. After lugging it down the dock (my slip was 4 slips from the end so it was a long shag) and after trying every which way to stuff it in the car, to no avail, I lugged it all the way back to the boat. The next day I brought my 1964 Chevy P/u, which I should have used in the 1st place. When I got the boom home I noticed the end caps were pot metal and the screws were corroded. It wouldn't take much to crack the end caps so I decided to paint the boom and devise a better system to operate the outhaul, which is the primary control for draft depth (belly) and is the mainsails accelerator.
The problem with the Catalina outhaul is twofold, not withstanding the poorly designed internal system (even if you manage to repair it the thing will fail again) is the the slug in the boom track is a friction inducer and that coupled with the pulling motion of the outhaul rope, which is downward, which causes the slug to dig into the boom.
The solution is simple and involves 2 small Harken triple blocks, which are expensive little buggers, but provide enough mechanical advantage to get the job done. A couple of shackles and a turning block to route the line to the front of the boom and you're in business.
My Catalina 30's outhaul was broken when I purchased the boat. One day I had enough and decided to remove the boom and bring it home for repair. My first problem was I was driving my wife's 4 door company car at the time. No problem -- I thought I could make it fit. After lugging it down the dock (my slip was 4 slips from the end so it was a long shag) and after trying every which way to stuff it in the car, to no avail, I lugged it all the way back to the boat. The next day I brought my 1964 Chevy P/u, which I should have used in the 1st place. When I got the boom home I noticed the end caps were pot metal and the screws were corroded. It wouldn't take much to crack the end caps so I decided to paint the boom and devise a better system to operate the outhaul, which is the primary control for draft depth (belly) and is the mainsails accelerator.
The problem with the Catalina outhaul is twofold, not withstanding the poorly designed internal system (even if you manage to repair it the thing will fail again) is the the slug in the boom track is a friction inducer and that coupled with the pulling motion of the outhaul rope, which is downward, which causes the slug to dig into the boom.
The solution is simple and involves 2 small Harken triple blocks, which are expensive little buggers, but provide enough mechanical advantage to get the job done. A couple of shackles and a turning block to route the line to the front of the boom and you're in business.