The original specs for my 1983 Catalina 36 show the cockpit drains exiting down below the transom, under the boat, with a large outside circumference nylon bilge drain outlet in the center of the lower transom. But oddly, my boat has all three outlets right in the transom, smooth finished, no nylon bushings or any such add-ons. I've seen one other boat of my vintage with the same configuration. Was this a factory job, an owner mod? Anyone have any clues? Just curious. See attached image. You can also see my added swim step.
Location of Cockpit drain outlets
- Thread starter drdanj
- Start date
Scotty, Every so often I'd get open transom boat-itis, look at how much I'd have to spend to get a boat sufficiently bigger and newer to get that. Then I'd come back to Tao and love my old '83 all the more. I've seen people who added wildly expensive steps. About three years ago I stumbled onto this solution: a Serena (brand) home shower seat: aluminum frame, six teak slats (three against the wall that I saved so if the steps wear out, I can swap them out), and rated to hold 350 pounds. Price at the time was $189, I just saw several variations are currently out there, Moen has one rated at 400 lbs on Amazon. With our transoms at about 12-15 degrees reverse angle, it was a perfect solution, you lean back against the boat a bit. It was so good I got it published as a DIY article in Good Old Boat magazine a couple of years ago. I added stick on step pads for traction.
Well, then maybe this was the design in '82-3 and maybe they changed it the next year. Thanks.