Interviews

The Catalac 8M and the Catalac 9M are unique in that they have a tabernacle designed to raise and lower the mast. Chainplates are mounted at the pivot point and the procedure is both simple and convenient. Read how I dropped my mast, replaced everything at the top and rewired it, all in an afternoon. (click here) . Note the mast support wires in the drawing below. These are necessary. Remove all Sails, The Boom and the Mainsheet ( rope & Blocks ).…

by Emile du ToitCatalac 8M8-192I have been looking for a way not to buy a dedicated chart plotter and finally started investigating software options for the iPad. I tried and like two of them. 1) iNavx available for iPad and iPhone has some nice features for integrating data from your instruments if that is desired. It mainly uses NOAA RNC raster United States waters marine charts. Although these are free, I dont like them much as primary source since they are not auto quilting, meaning as you move off of one, you manually have to choose the next appropriate chart.…

by Hak Kauffman (note: Hak Kauffman bought his Catalac 27 in 1977 and sailed it for 20 years. In those early catamaran days, he was one of the brave pioneers who took a chance on these new styled boats. Hak sold the boat when his age caught up to him, but has vivid recollections of his, which he was kind enough to share with us – Rick) Catalac 27 In my search for a new bigger boat, I decided to include multihulls.…

I was going through my photo archive and came across these boat damage photos caused by hurricane Wilma in 2005. This boat in this photo is a Catalac 12M and was owned by Stephen and Janet Metcalf.  As to what happened … the Down Easter monohull pictured below lost it’s mooring during Hurricane Wilma due to poor anchoring techniques. As she lost her mooring at the height of the storm, hurricane winds drove her into a very heavy Ferro cement boat. The rigging of the two boats became tangled and eventually the Ferro cement boat lost her mooring as well.…

One of my very few peeves about the Catalac 8M has to do with the inboard diesel engine placement. Apparently boat balance dictated the engine position in the boat. In actuality,  the Yanmar 1GM10s were placed so far forward in the engine compartments that the front of the engine is just 3 inches (75cm) from the rear bulkhead. The engines are almost literally mid engine mounted. Unfortunately, the Yanmar water pump, external oil lines, oil filter, thermostat ..etc..are all located on the front of the engine and are not easily accessible for normal maintenance.…

by Didier Grietencontact Didier Grieten When I bought my 8M, it was equipped with the older style lifting steel blade rudders.The rudder blades however were in very bad condition, with considerable corrosion and rust. Also, the wood support structure had to be replaced as it was rotting away and looking at the rudder blades showed they required some TLC as well. In some areas thickness was reduced to 50% and rust still working to get it even thinner… This meant some serious work on the rudders was required… Here’s what it was supposed to look like: Normal rudder blades I had three options, the first being replace the wood, remove the heavily corroded areas and weld in new material or just entirely replace the steel blades with new ones, get them galvanized and throw on a few coatings of paint… The second one was to replace the whole rudder setup with the newer style Catalac skeg / rudder setup. …

I should be dead I imagine that if you live in the lightning capital of the world, itS unavoidable. Sooner or later the boat will be hit by lightning. However, usually it occurs when no one is on board. I should be so lucky. In our case, we had a front row seat as we were hit by lightning on what began as a perfect sailing afternoon. Southwinds, a sailing magazine, recently featured an article on lightning strikes and boats in their June 2009 issue, and mentioned my experience in their story. …

Caught in a hurricane When I completed the sales transaction and took ownership of my Catalac 8M, I was hundreds of miles from home. I couldn’t wait to bring her home and put out a call to friends and family for crew. I accepted my brother’s gracious offer to give me a hand. He has a solid power boat backround these days and when we were kids we spend every minute we could in boats on Long Island Sound and the north Atlantic, and we both survived it.…

by Sven and Sabine Seren continued from page 2 Atlantic Crossing with a Catalac 10M Part 3 What a difference it makes to sail downwind!! As we drew closer to the island, we had the current with us and made 7 to 10 kn consistantly over ground with the mainsail still in the second reef and the Genoa only half out. Our new destination would be St. Laurent du Maroni. This small city is located on the French side of the border river Maroni between French Guayana and Suriname.…

by Sven and Sabine Seren continued from page 1 Atlantic Crossing with a Catalac 10M Part 2 Our Atlantic crossing could now begin. Ahead of us were about 1800 nautical miles until French Guiana where we wanted to make for the Îles du Salut which are a group of small islands of volcanic origin about 11 km off the coast of French Guiana in the Atlantic Ocean.  The first day under sail was dominated by local wind effects from the Cape Verde islands.…

by Sven and Sabine Seren Atlantic Crossing with a Catalac 10M We, Sven and me, Sabine, found our Catalac 10M S/V Blue Felix, sail. number 35, at the German Baltic sea in summer 2012. The purchase and the handing over passed without problems due to the good and ready to sail condition of S/V Blue Felix including a set of new sails. Our Catalac 10M has been named S/V Blue Felix since his launch in 1988. He has two Yanmar engines with 27 hp each with saildrives and folding props.…

Continued from Part 1 By Christopher Langham and Esther Minter During my brief stop in Spain, my paternal Grandfather passed away and in the midst of trying to compose myself in dealing with my grief, I continued moving forward despite my lapse in funds and having to refit the Genoa. I tried to figure out a way to leave the boat and fly home, but I couldn’t. No more credit, no money to pay the marina, and only provisions to do one thing… Continue moving forward and I’m glad I did, because God always provided enough funds to keep moving forward. …

By Christopher Langham and Esther Minter When I started my journey in late June 2015, I envisioned emblematic escapades. Nevertheless, what I encountered was tremendous challenges that I never could have fathomed. These surprise factors after embarking on the journey from Largs, Scotland to St. Thomas USVI were mostly unnecessary, and had I known in advance what fiascos were ahead of me, I never would have left the comfort of my Government Housing Subsidized Apartment, in the Crime ridden projects of St.…