If yours is located in the same place as my 1996, aft of the aft berth, then you'll have very good access by removing the bulkhead. I remove mine yearly, as I drain the water heater and prep it for winter (Michigan). Obviously, remove all the cushions from the berth, and I think there are about six screws with trim washers holding it on. Remove those, and it's ready to remove. On mine, and probably your's, the bulkhead is fairly tightly wedged into position, so you don't just lift it out of the way. It'll take a little finessing to remove, and I can't remember if it pulls away at it's top or bottom (probably bottom)....you'll figure it out. Once out of position, it's easy to remove it completely from the aft berth area, giving you plenty of room to work.
I see you're in South Dakota...is that where you sail it and store it? If so, removing the bulkhead will be part of your annual winterizing. I have a little fitting I got at Home Depot zip-tied to the water heater. After disconnecting the cold in, and hot out hoses from the water heater, I use the little barbed fitting to fit them together, bypassing the water heater. Watch out for kinks in the hoses. Totally drain the water system by running the water pump with all (don't forget the aft shower) faucets open. Once drained, turn off the pump, close all the faucets, and pour two or three gallons of non-alchohol pink anti-freeze into your forward water tank. Turn the power back on to the pump, and go around the boat opening just one faucet at a time, and leave it on until you get a good solid flow of pink. Do the hot and the cold separately so you know you have good pink on each, then move on to the next faucet (you should have 3). That takes care of the system. South Dakota...yeah, use at least 3 gallons of pink. I keep a 3 foot length of garden hose (with female end on it) lying by the water heater, that I connect to the water heater to drain it. It just runs downhill to the bilge where the bilge pump sends it overboard. Bypassing the water heater obviously means it doesn't need any pink stuff in it (saves on pink stuff). My apologies if I've told you what you already know. I sponge out the bilge, and pour in about half a gallon of pink stuff as a precaution against water freezing in my bilge (probably not really necessary now that I've taken care of all the window leaks, etc. that the boat had when I got it, and newish custom cover keeps out 99% of the moisture).
note: My experience with the Cat 28 is that just about everything on it is easy to access, with the exception of the stanchion bases (ugh).
I agree that it's a good idea to replace the hoses running from the engine to the water heater. They snake around, and can rub on bulkhead openings, etc., and become worn. Based on our water usage patterns, I'll be removing the hoses completely, as we don't use a lot of hot water, and having hot water available after running the engine (water that's actually hotter than is normally considered safe) is not much of a bonus for us. I would just as soon remove the hoses and their potential (though small) for any leaks/problems. That leaves us with hot water via shore power on those rare occasions where we really need it. See how you really use your hot water and see what works for you. I like KISS.
Hope you enjoy your 28. We love ours. Oh, just for fun, welcome aboard Straycat in this video where my wife and I do a review of a boat cushion. I'm assuming you've been checking Youtube for videos of the 28
. We believe in non-destructive mods to the boat that fit how we really use it, and you'll see the interior at the end of the video where we removed the table, and put in fresh carpeting with no hole in it where the base for the table attaches to the cabin sole. We tend to eat our meals on the cockpit table, and we like the open cabin for when we lso, take a look at about the 3:15 minute mark on the video and note the fitting just aft of the sheet winch that we attached to the stern rail to control the roller furling line. In stock configuration, the line terminates on an un-handy cleat further forward. Our fitting clamps to the stern rail and is a block and cam cleat that makes it MUCH easier to control the furling line while remaining at the wheel. Nothing original about the idea, but is an area where Catalina skimped on something that every owner would want.
You'll notice at the end of the video, we removed the interior table, because we use the cockpit table, and like the extra elbow room in the cabin. You might also notice the nylon cleats we added to the companionway bulkhead with cord loops attached to tidy our halyards, etc.. We've been happy with that simple mod.
