Which model did they make the most of??

[Corker]

I would like to know what model of Catalina 30' + had the biggest production run. I am mainly concerned with the deck /cockpit layout. I have recently started a new company that makes affordable 'semi custom' cork decks for older production boats and we are interested in looking at Catalinas. Any help in sorting out which boats we should focus on would be helpful.

Thanks

 

[jrowan]

Catalina made over 5,000 C 30's, the most popular sailboat ever built. I believe the Mark 1 original layout is the most popular / basic design in the evolution. They don't change much over the years, the only difference being a walk through transom in the mark II version. I must say however that you should take specific measurements from the C 30 itself to be accurate. Also I would never recommend using cork in a direct exposure to the marine environment. I used cork flooring in my kitchen renovation and it can't even handle exposure to moisture & average wear & tear indoors without curling & buckeling on the perimeter seams. It is also too soft, & rips, gouges & tears too easily to ever hold up to the riggers of sailing.

 

[Corker]

Curling

Also I would never recommend using cork in a direct exposure to the marine environment. I used cork flooring in my kitchen renovation and it can't even handle exposure to moisture & average wear & tear indoors without curling & buckeling on the perimeter seams. It is also too soft, & rips, gouges & tears too easily to ever hold up to the riggers of sailing.

When we first started testing cork for decking material we encountered the curling and buckeling you have noticed your floor inside your house. We tested a number of adhesives and finally found one that holds the cork down. Finding the correct adhesive was key to making cork work.

As for rips, gouges, and tears. Our cork material is an amalgamation with cork granules added to the mix to give it the final look and feel. Once the material is attached to the deck it becomes very stiff. We even have used it as the bull nose on steps. We were shocked that it held up. We have not had any "rips or tears", however, we have had a few gouges. One in particular was from a dropped winch handle. I can say it would have gouged a regular fiberglass deck. Since the deck is an amalgamation the gouge was repaired in @ 3 minutes. The nice thing is a repair is virtually impossible to see where it was once the deck has grayed down after the sanding.

 

[jrowan]

Just curious, what is the type of adhesive that you use? Is it polyeurothane based?
I used an indoor floor glue for tiles, but "Bostic's Best" was recommended to me.

 

[Corker]

Just curious, what is the type of adhesive that you use? Is it polyeurothane based?
I used an indoor floor glue for tiles, but "Bostic's Best" was recommended to me.

The adhesive and gluing the cork to the deck is one of the most important issues with installing this material. We tested over 50 adhesives and a great number of different pretreatment techniques with varying degrees of success.

Some of the keys to getting our product to adhere properly:

• The first thing we did is to have a different surface put on the side of the cork that we plan on attaching to the deck. Since the cork is basically waterproof and the adhesive does not penetrate very deep into the material this made a real difference in the adhesion.
• Our cork is @.5" thick when we start working with it. We route a .25" groove and then fill with a silicon based seam filler. This allows our deck to propagate any expansion to the next joint and the expansion is somewhat mitigated by the seam. The nice side effect of this is the seams tend to stand a little proud when the deck is wet. This gives a boost to nonskid.
• We choose a high end epoxy with special additives to allow the epoxy to flex to accommodate the natural expansion of the cork.
• The cork has a natural wax imbedded in the pores so we treat the underside of the cork to help the epoxy take hold. Without this the cork tends to peel up when temperature cycled.
• We have an entire process of how to uniformly spread the epoxy and hold the cork down while the adhesive cures.

Of course we send out an instruction manual with the material and if there are any questions we walk the installer through the process. Since this is a sheet material an owner with some skill should be able to install it with a competent helper.

Be careful with polyurethane adhesives. Our testing showed that this did not hold up well to the thermal cycling. The cork ended up peeling off in sheets. I don't remember if we tested Bostic's Best so I can't respond to how this would work.

Peter