After wanting to do it for several years I was down in Florida and took Wednesday off and drove over to the Tampa area to Largo and did the factory tour. Even got to meet Gerry Douglas for a minute. Warren Pandy was the tour guide and it was just me and the Admiral as the other person who was to take the tour did not show up. Pretty impressive tour and Warren made the whole thing about building boats sound pretty routine. It was nice to meet Warren as he and I have corresponded over the years about various issues and it is nice to have a face with a name.
We started in an open shed where they had a hull and a cabin top that were partially completed. Pretty interesting to see as we were guessing to which model it belongs. One interesting thing was that they epoxy fiberglass lifting straps onto the sides to pull them out of the mold and then grind them down. Warren said on a few buyer surveys (when viewed in a mirror) they were called out as undocumented repairs.
Then we went into the shed where they pour all the 6 components (hull, structural grid, cabin top, head, deck, deck liner. Note they don't count the head as one of their major structures, but they molded them there and drop them in on one piece, so that is my story and I am sticking with it. :naughty: Pretty cool process as by using the molds you can see where everything goes and it gives very consistent builds. It was very cool to see all the little aluminum backing plates and the aluminum beams they mold in for all of the fittings. They have marks on the mold so there is no mistake where every piece goes.
Warren even let me dumpster dive and get a piece of the balsa
(picture attached for PaulJ's benefit) coring that they use to stiffen the cabin tops and on some models parts of the hulls. Small blocks of end grain balsa glued to a thin mat so they can take them and lay them in an pour epoxy over them to seal them in. Kind of thing you look at and think "why didn't I think of that."
Then we went to the next shed (this was open so it was a lot cooler as we were sweating pretty good in the epoxy shed) where they have all of the boats on the line and they fit them out step by step. As they finish one thing (such as engine installation and plumbing, then they move it down until at the end they have the cabin top and keel installed so they can drop it into a tank for integrity testing. One funny comment (at least to me) was that Warren pointed out that a lot of the panels covering openings in the half assembled hulls were temp ones the workmen used so they could walk around and work - to me that was obvious, but apparently some folks asked about them.
The final two sheds we saw were the wood shop and the cabinet shop. What I called the wood shop is where they cut some specialty pieces, but mostly was where they did the varnishing and finishing, while the cabinet shop was where they do most of the major cutting (lots of dust). They also had another shed where they had all the keels and masts that we prepped for mating to the boats.
This was a really great 2 hours to spend on boat stuff. I actually thought the factory would be bigger given all the boats they put out, but they do seem pretty efficient. I have to say that everyone was very nice.
They also have a Catalina store there with all kinds of parts in there. I scored a new screen for one of my hatches, which made me pretty happy as WM is hit or miss with stuff like this. At any rate here is Ken Roy's contact info if you need stuff as he was pretty knowledgeable and someone who can get you that part you need. :dance:
Ken Roy
Parts Department
7200 Bryan Dairy Road, Largo, Floriday 33777
727-544-6681
Ken@CatalinaYachts.com
We started in an open shed where they had a hull and a cabin top that were partially completed. Pretty interesting to see as we were guessing to which model it belongs. One interesting thing was that they epoxy fiberglass lifting straps onto the sides to pull them out of the mold and then grind them down. Warren said on a few buyer surveys (when viewed in a mirror) they were called out as undocumented repairs.
Then we went into the shed where they pour all the 6 components (hull, structural grid, cabin top, head, deck, deck liner. Note they don't count the head as one of their major structures, but they molded them there and drop them in on one piece, so that is my story and I am sticking with it. :naughty: Pretty cool process as by using the molds you can see where everything goes and it gives very consistent builds. It was very cool to see all the little aluminum backing plates and the aluminum beams they mold in for all of the fittings. They have marks on the mold so there is no mistake where every piece goes.
Warren even let me dumpster dive and get a piece of the balsa
(picture attached for PaulJ's benefit) coring that they use to stiffen the cabin tops and on some models parts of the hulls. Small blocks of end grain balsa glued to a thin mat so they can take them and lay them in an pour epoxy over them to seal them in. Kind of thing you look at and think "why didn't I think of that."Then we went to the next shed (this was open so it was a lot cooler as we were sweating pretty good in the epoxy shed) where they have all of the boats on the line and they fit them out step by step. As they finish one thing (such as engine installation and plumbing, then they move it down until at the end they have the cabin top and keel installed so they can drop it into a tank for integrity testing. One funny comment (at least to me) was that Warren pointed out that a lot of the panels covering openings in the half assembled hulls were temp ones the workmen used so they could walk around and work - to me that was obvious, but apparently some folks asked about them.
The final two sheds we saw were the wood shop and the cabinet shop. What I called the wood shop is where they cut some specialty pieces, but mostly was where they did the varnishing and finishing, while the cabinet shop was where they do most of the major cutting (lots of dust). They also had another shed where they had all the keels and masts that we prepped for mating to the boats.
This was a really great 2 hours to spend on boat stuff. I actually thought the factory would be bigger given all the boats they put out, but they do seem pretty efficient. I have to say that everyone was very nice.
They also have a Catalina store there with all kinds of parts in there. I scored a new screen for one of my hatches, which made me pretty happy as WM is hit or miss with stuff like this. At any rate here is Ken Roy's contact info if you need stuff as he was pretty knowledgeable and someone who can get you that part you need. :dance:
Ken Roy
Parts Department
7200 Bryan Dairy Road, Largo, Floriday 33777
727-544-6681
Ken@CatalinaYachts.com
