Hayden's link has it all, I knew a goodhearted C30 skipper would help, but note it's right to the link I already gave you.Thanks Stu. So it's possible, to your knowledge, that a Catalina 30 could have wheel steering - and not be an MKi?
Sorry Stu but my link was to the same web site but not the same page. The C30 association web site is nowhere near as well organized as the C34 association site. every time I go there, I have to search a long time to find the info that I know it has. When you scroll down the page that I linked, you get the running changes that were made and the hull number when it happened. That web site is a great resource to anyone with an C30 or is shopping for one, but you have to look hard to find the good stuff.Hayden's link has it all, I knew a goodhearted C30 skipper would help, but note it's right to the link I already gave you.
"Mark 1" as noted was never in the builder's mind. It's only us organized owners who. when Mark IIs came out, decided to label the older ones Mark I. Clever, eh? We all did this with the whole original range of Catalinas: 28, 30, 34 & 36.
The major change is between the straight cockpits to the T cockpit. Evdiently, some straight cockpits came with OEM wheels, but most of the Mark I boats with wheels were conversions, which took the cockpit electrical panel off the cockpit seat sidewalls when they added the wheels.
Everything after the Mark I came with wheels - no options to go back to tillers.
Thanks AlanIt's MK II, they started building them in 1986 (the original would be the MK I, even though it wasn't named that way). The MK II added the T shaped cockpit and made wheel steering standard. Earlier ones may have wheel steering as it was optional, many have been converted.