G'Day from Down-Under-Sean

Jun 19, 2020
2
Catalina 310 Batemans Bay
G'Day SBO C310ers
Just a quick post to introduce myself as a new member of SBO. I'm Sean, currently living in sunny Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. I don't yet have a C310, but I've whittled my dreamtime boat down to this model. I applaud Catalina's vision of a couple's boat with a slightly smaller saloon and more V-berth room without having to go to 38-40ft to achieve it. I was recently living in the US and took the opportunity to charter a C310 on Galveston Bay. We had a blast, the boat was terrific and the handling easy for a couple (although the I never realised just how important A/C is until that July trip). Now that I'm back in Aus I'll start looking around for a suitable C310 (not too many down here), and in particular one with the winged keel (any experiences good or bad?), but not in any hurry - it's a few years before I move back to the East Coast of Australia, and a number of years before I retire.

This will be my fifth boat (and last - is there ever a last?). The boat I have at the moment is one I built myself a few years ago, it's an Iain Oughtred Tammie Norrie built glued lapstrake clinker with a Gunter Rig (image below - I've since fixed that drooping gaff!). I'm learning that it might not be tough enough for the Darwin NT sailing conditions, but still plenty of fun.

I'm looking forward to reading the extensive posts here and learning the (virtual) ropes before I take the plunge with my own C310.

Hope you're all keeping safe
Tammie Norrie in Darwin.jpg


Cheers
Down Under Sean
 
Nov 18, 2010
2,441
Catalina 310 Hingham, MA
We love our 310. We have about 20k nm under her keel. She is highly modified and more modifications are always in the works. Ours is a wing keel model and we prefer the shallow draft.

There is a 310 group in Australia. They are active on Facebook.

Good luck and fair winds,

Jesse
 
Nov 6, 2006
9,884
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Welcome aboard, Sean.. That is a beautiful boat you built !! Lots of great info here on the forum..
 

JRT

.
Feb 14, 2017
2,037
Catalina 310 211 Lake Guntersville, AL
Welcome to SBO! What a cool boat you built! We have had the 310 a little over a year now and have no regrets. This forum is great and I've read every thread in the 310 to learn as much as I could
 

KZW

.
May 17, 2014
831
Catalina 310 #307 Bluewater Bay, FL
I have the wing keel, in-mast main, roller furling genoa. All this adds up to slow. But it is still a great boat. Three slips away is a 310 with deep fin keel, standard main. She is clearly faster and can point higher than my boat. Still, if he isn't paying attention or screws up, I can take him on a Wednesday evening. Make no mistake, this isn't a race boat. My biggest disappointment is is the boom vang. It is fixed. Seems on earlier 310 with adjustable vangs, folks with the roller main wouldn't put the boom end up to furl and that leads to real issues. So, Catalina went to a fixed vang. It can be adjusted by pulling a pin and rotating the barrel, but it is impractical to do under way with the main out.
If you have light air, you may want an asymmetric spinnaker. Mine is in a sock. I'd like it on a roller fuller, but I need a crane on the top of the mast to do that. Otherwise it hangs up on the Genoa roller furling.
Don't get hung up on the negatives. I love this boat. Biggest cockpit for its size that I've seen. Easy to sail. Just plain fun. it is a real nice boat.