Hey gang: Just got back home from the Atlantic City Sailboat show...WOW!!! The brand new Catalina 350 (and I do mean brand new since the deck was joined to the hull only a couple weeks ago!) was christened by Frank Butler, Jerry Douglas, and Sharon Day. Frank made a big deal of telling everyone how hard they worked to get hull #1 done in time for the show. This boat is going to be another big winner for Catalina. Although it hasn't even been in the water yet (talk about faith!) and despite a relatively small number of problems on this first boat they've gotten dozens of checks committing to purchases and the first production boat won't even be ready until the summer! I haven't checked yet, but I suspect the 350's specs and photo(s) should be available on the Catalina web site by now. Both Jerry and Frank told me they expect the 350 to be one of the best sailing boats they've ever produced. For thouse of you closer to "down island" the 350 will also be at the Maimi "Strictly Sail" show in mid-Feb. Recommend you check it out. I talked to the first couple to purchase one at the Atlantic City show and totally loaded (everything but a/c since they are in New England), they paid somewhere around $145K. That was with everything "factory" installed. If you are considering a new Catalina this year in that price range, I'd check her out. In my humble opinion, she was heads and shoulders a better boat than the Hunter 356 (which is the Cruising World 2002 "Boat of the Year." As for the rest of the show, Catalina really stood out. Lines for our boats were easily twice as long as those for all other manufacturers (all the big ones were there). All models but the C-34 were represented and I saw a lot of folks sitting around tables in the "deal making" section. Oh yea, Frank Butler and group put on a great cocktail party on Friday night! Smooth Sailing. Tim Leighton (S/V "Magic")