Firstly hi all on forum .
Last week while sat on my 23 ft islander sailboat off the coast of Scarborough England I decided just like that , that I was going to buy a bigger boat somewhere warmer .
I've a friend that lives on a choey lee in big pine so I thought I join him there with what ever I buy and when me and ar lass ( that's how we speak in Yorkshire ( it means girlfriend )) would fly over in winter and spend time on it .
So my mate send me links on Craigslist for boats and one stands out ( now by the way I realise it's a small world so if any of this story rings a bell ie location and actual boats feel free to message me ) it's a Bristol 30 moored somewhere in St Petes Florida ( it's 10500$ ) and actually 3k£ more that my ideal 5k£ but In theory it's an off shore boat and I thought who knows one day I could sail this to the UK .
I figured if English are spending £5000 on a 2 week Barr boat charter in Greece I could spend a month over in the states sailing and be quids in .
So within 24 hours I had landed in Miami and was driving to St Pete ( now I know it sounds like I'm some high flying millionaire but I'm a hard working raggy lad , joiner , that realises life it too short , and if I died tommorrow the bank would lose
)
So we got to Saint Pete and the Bristol guy refused to pick up !!!! So after being slightly mad we started to look around and found a Catalina sail boat in St Pete and headed to meet the guy at Gulfport .
We also rung mr " Bristol " on another number and he answered ?? It turned out they were not only in the same marina but 3 boats apart ! So at we met cat30 we walked past the bris with a guy cutting chunks out of a very very soft rotten cored deck ( trying to get it looking better for my visit the " day after " that he was obviously going to tell me when he eventually would have picked up . Any how Bristol now out of running and sat on the cat 30 with owner , I liked it ! A lot ! It fitted what arr lass wanted and more and was beemy . I dint need it to sail the world ( that's my next one ) but I liked it . Then I saw "the rot " in the bilge at the bottom of the mast . So I sort of ruled it out and headed to brooksville to friends for the night .
In the morning I had a brain wave and thought let me ring Catalina . And low and behold it's a common problem and the fix for a man of my calibre lol is 4 hours and 160$ for the hardwood block . A snip !
So well in my budget and over the phone I sealed the deal and within 2 hours this cat 30 with great running engine , newish sails was mine .
I even ended up with a hooka rig cheap , little did I know I'd need it in 6 hours .
We fully serviced the engine and set off . Within 200 hundred yards we realised there was a problem . In gear I could not get more than 2000 revs . We deducted it was a prop fouling problem and bye eck when I dived it at midnight on the rig the prop was so barnicled up it was unbelievable but 20 mins later you could have rode bare arsed to York on it .
It run sweet and on full revs .
All good we were off and buzzing .
By the way It actually turned out the rot was not too rottey when I had chance to poke it .
So we hit the gulf and had to beet the wind South in not the best sailing conditions .
And eventually anchored in a good spot to get a few hours sleep be for we decided to hit the intercostal and motor .
We motored the intercostal all yesterday and anchored near englewood . And with the fear that Erika was going to hit big pine in the keys decided to jump ship and drive down there to hole up my friends choey lee .
Here's where things make me worry . After the limited time I had to do research on the cat 30 I was sold .
But on the dive South the " Catalina smile " came to light on forums !
Now there is nothing to say mine has firstly but yesterday , stupidly we ran aground under the advice that a channel to a restraunt had been dug to 11 ft that turned out to be bull we even tried both sides of the channel as they were adamant .
We got off no problem and the bottom was soft .
So no hard hit .
But it got me thinking who knows what we have done and to be honest even googling Catalina problems I could not believe the cat smile had not come up .
At the minute as I type I've my mate is heading south and I'm heading back to dive the boat and hopfully the only smile I'll see is mine !
But what do I need to look for and God forbid the keel is smiling is there a quick fix , quick seal anything I can do or even anything to worry about .
I've read nearly every full fix over a very sleepless night , and that full fix in my eyes is a snip and not a problem . I still love the boat and have no regrets .
Sorry for the long story but I see myself as actually luck the Bristol guy did not answer and the cat 30 owner was a star and I no matter what I find in 3 hours I would hold no grudge so as I say if anyone knows of this actual cat in the marina next to Gulfport feel free to message me .
The only reason I'm not mentioning the name is I like it and in future if the name gets Google for a cat 30 I'd rather it bring up pictures and videos of the fantastic things myself and Rachael are going to get up to .
Thanks in advance . Woody
Last week while sat on my 23 ft islander sailboat off the coast of Scarborough England I decided just like that , that I was going to buy a bigger boat somewhere warmer .
I've a friend that lives on a choey lee in big pine so I thought I join him there with what ever I buy and when me and ar lass ( that's how we speak in Yorkshire ( it means girlfriend )) would fly over in winter and spend time on it .
So my mate send me links on Craigslist for boats and one stands out ( now by the way I realise it's a small world so if any of this story rings a bell ie location and actual boats feel free to message me ) it's a Bristol 30 moored somewhere in St Petes Florida ( it's 10500$ ) and actually 3k£ more that my ideal 5k£ but In theory it's an off shore boat and I thought who knows one day I could sail this to the UK .
I figured if English are spending £5000 on a 2 week Barr boat charter in Greece I could spend a month over in the states sailing and be quids in .
So within 24 hours I had landed in Miami and was driving to St Pete ( now I know it sounds like I'm some high flying millionaire but I'm a hard working raggy lad , joiner , that realises life it too short , and if I died tommorrow the bank would lose
) So we got to Saint Pete and the Bristol guy refused to pick up !!!! So after being slightly mad we started to look around and found a Catalina sail boat in St Pete and headed to meet the guy at Gulfport .
We also rung mr " Bristol " on another number and he answered ?? It turned out they were not only in the same marina but 3 boats apart ! So at we met cat30 we walked past the bris with a guy cutting chunks out of a very very soft rotten cored deck ( trying to get it looking better for my visit the " day after " that he was obviously going to tell me when he eventually would have picked up . Any how Bristol now out of running and sat on the cat 30 with owner , I liked it ! A lot ! It fitted what arr lass wanted and more and was beemy . I dint need it to sail the world ( that's my next one ) but I liked it . Then I saw "the rot " in the bilge at the bottom of the mast . So I sort of ruled it out and headed to brooksville to friends for the night .
In the morning I had a brain wave and thought let me ring Catalina . And low and behold it's a common problem and the fix for a man of my calibre lol is 4 hours and 160$ for the hardwood block . A snip !
So well in my budget and over the phone I sealed the deal and within 2 hours this cat 30 with great running engine , newish sails was mine .
I even ended up with a hooka rig cheap , little did I know I'd need it in 6 hours .
We fully serviced the engine and set off . Within 200 hundred yards we realised there was a problem . In gear I could not get more than 2000 revs . We deducted it was a prop fouling problem and bye eck when I dived it at midnight on the rig the prop was so barnicled up it was unbelievable but 20 mins later you could have rode bare arsed to York on it .
It run sweet and on full revs .
All good we were off and buzzing .
By the way It actually turned out the rot was not too rottey when I had chance to poke it .
So we hit the gulf and had to beet the wind South
in not the best sailing conditions . And eventually anchored in a good spot to get a few hours sleep be for we decided to hit the intercostal and motor .
We motored the intercostal all yesterday and anchored near englewood . And with the fear that Erika was going to hit big pine in the keys decided to jump ship and drive down there to hole up my friends choey lee .
Here's where things make me worry . After the limited time I had to do research on the cat 30 I was sold .
But on the dive South the " Catalina smile " came to light on forums !
Now there is nothing to say mine has firstly but yesterday , stupidly we ran aground under the advice that a channel to a restraunt had been dug to 11 ft that turned out to be bull we even tried both sides of the channel as they were adamant .
We got off no problem and the bottom was soft .
So no hard hit .
But it got me thinking who knows what we have done and to be honest even googling Catalina problems I could not believe the cat smile had not come up .
At the minute as I type I've my mate is heading south and I'm heading back to dive the boat and hopfully the only smile I'll see is mine !
But what do I need to look for and God forbid the keel is smiling is there a quick fix , quick seal anything I can do or even anything to worry about .
I've read nearly every full fix over a very sleepless night , and that full fix in my eyes is a snip and not a problem . I still love the boat and have no regrets .
Sorry for the long story but I see myself as actually luck the Bristol guy did not answer and the cat 30 owner was a star and I no matter what I find in 3 hours I would hold no grudge so as I say if anyone knows of this actual cat in the marina next to Gulfport feel free to message me .
The only reason I'm not mentioning the name is I like it and in future if the name gets Google for a cat 30 I'd rather it bring up pictures and videos of the fantastic things myself and Rachael are going to get up to .
Thanks in advance . Woody
