Catalina Customer Service.
It appears that some of our Catalina owners' forum participants are not aware that the Catalina Factory has terrific customer service and parts departments. Many of the questions I see in these forums can be easily answered and most problems solved by simply calling Catalina Yachts. Believe me when I tell you one of the best reasons for owning a Catalina, old or new, is the support you get from the factory.When one of us suggests you call Catalina to solve your problem, we mean Catalina Yachts, not CatalinaDirect. In no way am I discrediting CatalinaDirect, they provide many great aftermarket products. I am suggesting that many of you are not aware of the factory's continued desire to provide service.When I bought my 77 Cat27, 5 years ago, I called customer service and asked them to send me whatever info they could. To my pleasant surprise, I received a packet of goodies that included a complete parts list, a C27 owner's handbook, a Catalina rigging/setup guide, a General Catalina owner's handbook, a list of that model's known problems and suggested upgrades and retrofits, information on the Catalina 27 owner's association, some schematic drawings of the boat's components, and a terrific letter from customer service telling me how happy they were that I bought a USED Catalina!Could this be one of the reasons this company has prospered all these years, and developed such a loyal following?By the way, all of the aforementioned items I received from customer service are available at the various Catalina owner's association websites.