Tell me about the Catalina 36

[NCmoonraker]

My husband and I were the lucky owners of a Catalina 38, S&S design for 15 years. Unfortunately Hurricane Irene destroyed that beautiful lady despite our best efforts to protect her. We are in the market for a replacement and are looking at Catalina 36 years 1987-1990.

We are retired and do mostly weekend and short week-two week trips. Any 36 owners out there care to share what they like (or don't like) about their Catalina 36?? Any structural problems we should check for?

 

[JoeWhite]

I currently own a C36 ( or Catalina 36) 1999 MKII. I am in San Francisco Bay. I spent about one year looking for the right boat. There is nothing better. It is very fast and stable, roomy and well equipped. You can join the C36 international community - and I am a member here - You can learn a lot from the members since it is only C36. Look in Yachtworld.com for a list of these sailboats. Good luck let us know what you decided to do.

 

[Stu Jackson]

www.c36ia.org Go to Forums, join and ask away, they'll be glad to help. Great boats, and we share identical systems.

 

[MikeinLA]

I think you will be happy on a C36. It is much more "liveable" than a 38 with more organized storage and the game table is real nice allowing you to turn the dinette into a pit sofa. I have seen some talk of leaking chainplates, but my boat is a '91 and nothing has ever gone wrong so far. (Knock on teak). Like Stu suggested, check out the C36IA forum and just read all the technical posts to find any problems people have had. Trust me, you will love this boat.

Mike

 

[therobesons]

We have had 2 Catalina 36's.

They are the worlds most popular 36 ever produced and one of the best all around sailing midsize boats out there.
Some boats make good condos, some make good sailboats, few combind both as well as the C-36.
We bought our 1st 36 in the 1998, had here for about 5 years. sold her as we went Over the road trucking and could not use her. Sad day when it sold.

When our lives allowed us to sail again, we looked at lots of other boats, but it was the 36 that brought us back.

She is still, very comfortable to sail, helm balances ez, sails well,, even good in light air and handles winds to 20+ kts. Our boats were easy to reef. in strong winds we just used the jib, and rooled it in some if the wind got really blowing.

She sails wing on wing with out modification. Handles a spinniker.

Inside is very roomy for a 36, maybe the most interrior volume of any 36 out there.

The 21hp engne pushes the boat to an ez 6 kts, and uses very little fuel.

There are to versions for the sail platform. Std rig and the Tall rig. I had both.

The tall rig does give better saill performance.

Feel free to call or IM for more insight on the C-36

Bob
951-246-1053

PS: We now have a Hunter 420 Center Cockpit. Great Condo, bad sailboat. Like I sad, few combine both succuessfully.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Chainplates are part of preventive maintenance. For all boats. C36 and C34 chainplates are rugged and easy to service and rebed. Access to them down below is superb.

 

[drdanj]

My husband and I were the lucky owners of a Catalina 38, S&S design for 15 years. Unfortunately Hurricane Irene destroyed that beautiful lady despite our best efforts to protect her. We are in the market for a replacement and are looking at Catalina 36 years 1987-1990.

We are retired and do mostly weekend and short week-two week trips. Any 36 owners out there care to share what they like (or don't like) about their Catalina 36?? Any structural problems we should check for?

Had a C30, moved up to Tao, a 1983 c36 two+ years ago. It's a great old boat. I'm 6'4", my wife nearly 6', we can both stand up and lay down in it without cracking our heads. I've also rigged up a king size air bed crossways in the main saloon, makes it much more comfortable and you don't have to pretzel out of the berths). She's stable, handles well. Tao was in great shape when we got her, had been cared for. She also sailed the Transpac twice, so can be vouched for for being a solid boat. Of course all sorts of little things are ongoing, but that's true of any boat. I recently added a windlass and used it for the first time this past weekend. I wish it had a walk-through transom, but given the price difference to get one, hey, an older boat makes great sense. I've seen no structural problems. Tao had some leaks, but just kept after finding them and she now seems water tight. Our C30 had the infamous smile, Tao does not. I've been on bigger boats, dockmate just bought a late 90's 380. But for the price difference, really, got very little more boat. Looked at bigger boats at a boatshow, but again, you really have to step up a lot for the differences to start to really be apparent.