I wonder if it does make a difference to have a Catalina 30 with a tall or
regular mast.
Is the tall mast suited for coastal cruising?

On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:35:19 GMT, "Denis Marier"
wrote:

I wonder if it does make a difference to have a Catalina 30 with a tall or
regular mast.
Is the tall mast suited for coastal cruising?

Sure, it makes a difference in sail area, center of effort and how
much grunting happens at launch time G.

All things being equal, a taller rig with an accompanying slight
change in ballast will allow better light air performance (which could
mean lake or coastal depending on your location), and will put more
sail (marginally) in that air which doesn't want to come down to deck
level, which I associate with sailing close to warmed land/cities in
the summer months.

If you intend to race, the taller rig is definitely desirable. If you
intend to cruise, not so much.

R.

Thanks for the information.
I sail inland in the Saint John River systems, the Bay of Fundy and coastal
New Brunswick, Maine and Nova Scotia.
On the coast the wind is more regular than inland. On the Kennebecassis
River and Grand Lake the wind can be steady than all of a sudden your boat
is listing at 30 degrees plus. Sometime the direction and velocity of the
wind vary a lot during a day. At time black clouds and wind coming downhill
produce an irregular behavior. As you said the geometric center of the boat
has to be correct. I suspect that the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall
mast have the same keel (5'3") configuration as the regular mast. Most of
the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall mast (2 feet more) have the regular
keel. Other tall rigs have the shortest wing keel.



"rhys" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:35:19 GMT, "Denis Marier"
wrote:

I wonder if it does make a difference to have a Catalina 30 with a tall
or
regular mast.
Is the tall mast suited for coastal cruising?

Sure, it makes a difference in sail area, center of effort and how
much grunting happens at launch time G.

All things being equal, a taller rig with an accompanying slight
change in ballast will allow better light air performance (which could
mean lake or coastal depending on your location), and will put more
sail (marginally) in that air which doesn't want to come down to deck
level, which I associate with sailing close to warmed land/cities in
the summer months.

If you intend to race, the taller rig is definitely desirable. If you
intend to cruise, not so much.

R.

I would suggest you stick to the standard mast. My cat used to have control
problems when you had too much sail up during strong winds, 2 feet more will
only make it worse.
My father recently redid the boat after we lost our mast a few years back.
Since we sail in the caribean where the winds tend to be in the 15-30 knot
area we decided to go with a super-strong rigging. its a normal mast with
one size bigger than the regular cat for all the rigging. Its heavy but its
strong. I dont know if they changed the design after our boat was built but
I remember that my parents had to alter the inside a bit to reinforce the
place where the rigging enters the deck. After about 14 years of owning the
boat(and other owners before it) we lost the mast due to a failed bolt in
one of the bases for the rigging, aparently it just broke and since its only
one bolt it came off and off went the mast, we decided to change that too
and add 2 instead of 1. I am very happy with it, its a small boat but it can
take a real punch, we have sailed it in all kinds of weather and raced it
hard(we are the long time victors of the cruising class in cartagena,
colombia).

PS. Did I mention that our boat is one of the first build? Its like # 212 or
112, cant remeber which, but its amongs those numbers :P

"Denis Marier" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the information.
I sail inland in the Saint John River systems, the Bay of Fundy and
coastal
New Brunswick, Maine and Nova Scotia.
On the coast the wind is more regular than inland. On the Kennebecassis
River and Grand Lake the wind can be steady than all of a sudden your
boat
is listing at 30 degrees plus. Sometime the direction and velocity of the
wind vary a lot during a day. At time black clouds and wind coming
downhill
produce an irregular behavior. As you said the geometric center of the
boat
has to be correct. I suspect that the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall
mast have the same keel (5'3") configuration as the regular mast. Most of
the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall mast (2 feet more) have the
regular
keel. Other tall rigs have the shortest wing keel.



"rhys" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:35:19 GMT, "Denis Marier"
wrote:

I wonder if it does make a difference to have a Catalina 30 with a tall
or
regular mast.
Is the tall mast suited for coastal cruising?

Sure, it makes a difference in sail area, center of effort and how
much grunting happens at launch time G.

All things being equal, a taller rig with an accompanying slight
change in ballast will allow better light air performance (which could
mean lake or coastal depending on your location), and will put more
sail (marginally) in that air which doesn't want to come down to deck
level, which I associate with sailing close to warmed land/cities in
the summer months.

If you intend to race, the taller rig is definitely desirable. If you
intend to cruise, not so much.

R.

My cat used to have control
problems when you had too much sail up

Really? How odd.

Then this:
we sail in the caribean where the winds tend to be in the 15-30 knots

You bought a boat with the WRONG rig in it for the area you sail in.

When we buy everything, we must make intelligent decisions, which you
obviously didn't.

These are the people who drive SUVs without thinking about what it costs
them.

Sebastian Miles wrote:

I would suggest you stick to the standard mast. My cat used to have control
problems when you had too much sail up during strong winds, 2 feet more will
only make it worse.
My father recently redid the boat after we lost our mast a few years back.
Since we sail in the caribean where the winds tend to be in the 15-30 knot
area we decided to go with a super-strong rigging. its a normal mast with
one size bigger than the regular cat for all the rigging. Its heavy but its
strong. I dont know if they changed the design after our boat was built but
I remember that my parents had to alter the inside a bit to reinforce the
place where the rigging enters the deck. After about 14 years of owning the
boat(and other owners before it) we lost the mast due to a failed bolt in
one of the bases for the rigging, aparently it just broke and since its only
one bolt it came off and off went the mast, we decided to change that too
and add 2 instead of 1. I am very happy with it, its a small boat but it can
take a real punch, we have sailed it in all kinds of weather and raced it
hard(we are the long time victors of the cruising class in cartagena,
colombia).

PS. Did I mention that our boat is one of the first build? Its like # 212 or
112, cant remeber which, but its amongs those numbers :P

"Denis Marier" wrote in message
...

Thanks for the information.
I sail inland in the Saint John River systems, the Bay of Fundy and

coastal

New Brunswick, Maine and Nova Scotia.
On the coast the wind is more regular than inland. On the Kennebecassis
River and Grand Lake the wind can be steady than all of a sudden your

boat

is listing at 30 degrees plus. Sometime the direction and velocity of the
wind vary a lot during a day. At time black clouds and wind coming

downhill

produce an irregular behavior. As you said the geometric center of the

boat

has to be correct. I suspect that the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall
mast have the same keel (5'3") configuration as the regular mast. Most of
the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall mast (2 feet more) have the

regular

keel. Other tall rigs have the shortest wing keel.



"rhys" wrote in message
. ..

On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:35:19 GMT, "Denis Marier"
wrote:


I wonder if it does make a difference to have a Catalina 30 with a tall

or

regular mast.
Is the tall mast suited for coastal cruising?

Sure, it makes a difference in sail area, center of effort and how
much grunting happens at launch time G.

All things being equal, a taller rig with an accompanying slight
change in ballast will allow better light air performance (which could
mean lake or coastal depending on your location), and will put more
sail (marginally) in that air which doesn't want to come down to deck
level, which I associate with sailing close to warmed land/cities in
the summer months.

If you intend to race, the taller rig is definitely desirable. If you
intend to cruise, not so much.

R.

My cat used to have control
problems when you had too much sail up

Really? How odd.

Then this:
we sail in the caribean where the winds tend to be in the 15-30 knots

When I first read your post, I thought you had the tall rig. But after
a re-read, I figured out you had the standard rig.

The Catalina 30 is a lightly built boat, meant for lighter conditions.
You really bought the wrong boat, and at the least, didn't have it set
up for the conditions you sail in. Then there's the finding fault with
an obviously neglected rig:

14 years of owning the boat(and other owners before it) we lost the
mast due to a failed bolt in one of the bases for the rigging

Do you know that rigging should be inspected regularly? That does not
mean to look it over, but take it all down and INSPECT it.


Problem wasn't the rig, it was the owner of the rig.


Sebastian Miles wrote:

I would suggest you stick to the standard mast. My cat used to have control
problems when you had too much sail up during strong winds, 2 feet more will
only make it worse.
My father recently redid the boat after we lost our mast a few years back.
Since we sail in the caribean where the winds tend to be in the 15-30 knot
area we decided to go with a super-strong rigging. its a normal mast with
one size bigger than the regular cat for all the rigging. Its heavy but its
strong. I dont know if they changed the design after our boat was built but
I remember that my parents had to alter the inside a bit to reinforce the
place where the rigging enters the deck. After about 14 years of owning the
boat(and other owners before it) we lost the mast due to a failed bolt in
one of the bases for the rigging, aparently it just broke and since its only
one bolt it came off and off went the mast, we decided to change that too
and add 2 instead of 1. I am very happy with it, its a small boat but it can
take a real punch, we have sailed it in all kinds of weather and raced it
hard(we are the long time victors of the cruising class in cartagena,
colombia).

PS. Did I mention that our boat is one of the first build? Its like # 212 or
112, cant remeber which, but its amongs those numbers :P

"Denis Marier" wrote in message
...

Thanks for the information.
I sail inland in the Saint John River systems, the Bay of Fundy and

coastal

New Brunswick, Maine and Nova Scotia.
On the coast the wind is more regular than inland. On the Kennebecassis
River and Grand Lake the wind can be steady than all of a sudden your

boat

is listing at 30 degrees plus. Sometime the direction and velocity of the
wind vary a lot during a day. At time black clouds and wind coming

downhill

produce an irregular behavior. As you said the geometric center of the

boat

has to be correct. I suspect that the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall
mast have the same keel (5'3") configuration as the regular mast. Most of
the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall mast (2 feet more) have the

regular

keel. Other tall rigs have the shortest wing keel.



"rhys" wrote in message
. ..

On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:35:19 GMT, "Denis Marier"
wrote:


I wonder if it does make a difference to have a Catalina 30 with a tall

or

regular mast.
Is the tall mast suited for coastal cruising?

Sure, it makes a difference in sail area, center of effort and how
much grunting happens at launch time G.

All things being equal, a taller rig with an accompanying slight
change in ballast will allow better light air performance (which could
mean lake or coastal depending on your location), and will put more
sail (marginally) in that air which doesn't want to come down to deck
level, which I associate with sailing close to warmed land/cities in
the summer months.

If you intend to race, the taller rig is definitely desirable. If you
intend to cruise, not so much.

R.

My cat used to have control
problems when you had too much sail up

Really? How odd.

Some boats behave better than others. For that cat to maintain a good
heading at the top end of that wind required you to break your back. Unlike
a Jennau(sp?) 47 I have sailed before.

When I first read your post, I thought you had the tall rig. But after
a re-read, I figured out you had the standard rig.

The Catalina 30 is a lightly built boat, meant for lighter conditions.
You really bought the wrong boat, and at the least, didn't have it set
up for the conditions you sail in. Then there's the finding fault with
an obviously neglected rig:

Actually, there wasnt much of a choice, it is south america and this was 19
years ago ya know. Besides they didnt have that much money.
The couple of modifications meant that we did make it seaworthy, and the
rigging wich we had changed already once and came already like that was
already set for heavy weather. It was so good that we raced it and cruised
it in extreme conditions for over 15 years. The only neglect was something
which we couldnt see and didnt have experience with(now I remember that one
of the modifications was to make the lower plate of the rigging bigger to
withstand the increase load, but what broke was the bolt).

Do you know that rigging should be inspected regularly? That does not
mean to look it over, but take it all down and INSPECT it.


Problem wasn't the rig, it was the owner of the rig.

As I said before, the problem was in an unseen area. It wouldve required
pulling out the anchors/bases/bolts(whatever you call them) from the boat
and replacing them. It sounds logical after the fact, but you dont think
about it, and we didnt really have any problems with it to merrit a full
recontruction in which we would take those out.

Sebastian Miles


"Jim" wrote in message
ink.net...

Then this:
we sail in the caribean where the winds tend to be in the 15-30 knots


14 years of owning the boat(and other owners before it) we lost the
mast due to a failed bolt in one of the bases for the rigging



Sebastian Miles wrote:

I would suggest you stick to the standard mast. My cat used to have
control
problems when you had too much sail up during strong winds, 2 feet more
will
only make it worse.
My father recently redid the boat after we lost our mast a few years
back.
Since we sail in the caribean where the winds tend to be in the 15-30
knot
area we decided to go with a super-strong rigging. its a normal mast
with
one size bigger than the regular cat for all the rigging. Its heavy but
its
strong. I dont know if they changed the design after our boat was built
but
I remember that my parents had to alter the inside a bit to reinforce
the
place where the rigging enters the deck. After about 14 years of owning
the
boat(and other owners before it) we lost the mast due to a failed bolt
in
one of the bases for the rigging, aparently it just broke and since its
only
one bolt it came off and off went the mast, we decided to change that
too
and add 2 instead of 1. I am very happy with it, its a small boat but it
can
take a real punch, we have sailed it in all kinds of weather and raced
it
hard(we are the long time victors of the cruising class in cartagena,
colombia).

PS. Did I mention that our boat is one of the first build? Its like #
212 or
112, cant remeber which, but its amongs those numbers :P

"Denis Marier" wrote in message
...

Thanks for the information.
I sail inland in the Saint John River systems, the Bay of Fundy and

coastal

New Brunswick, Maine and Nova Scotia.
On the coast the wind is more regular than inland. On the Kennebecassis
River and Grand Lake the wind can be steady than all of a sudden your

boat

is listing at 30 degrees plus. Sometime the direction and velocity of
the
wind vary a lot during a day. At time black clouds and wind coming

downhill

produce an irregular behavior. As you said the geometric center of the

boat

has to be correct. I suspect that the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall
mast have the same keel (5'3") configuration as the regular mast. Most
of
the Catalina 30 equipped with the tall mast (2 feet more) have the

regular

keel. Other tall rigs have the shortest wing keel.



"rhys" wrote in message
. ..

On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:35:19 GMT, "Denis Marier"
wrote:


I wonder if it does make a difference to have a Catalina 30 with a
tall

or

regular mast.
Is the tall mast suited for coastal cruising?

Sure, it makes a difference in sail area, center of effort and how
much grunting happens at launch time G.

All things being equal, a taller rig with an accompanying slight
change in ballast will allow better light air performance (which could
mean lake or coastal depending on your location), and will put more
sail (marginally) in that air which doesn't want to come down to deck
level, which I associate with sailing close to warmed land/cities in
the summer months.

If you intend to race, the taller rig is definitely desirable. If you
intend to cruise, not so much.

R.

In article ,
"Denis Marier" wrote:

I wonder if it does make a difference to have a Catalina 30 with a tall or
regular mast.
Is the tall mast suited for coastal cruising?

All things considered, it's better to shorten sail than not have enough
for light air.

Most cruisers seem to be SO worried about the worst storms and having
small strong sails, only to spend much more of their time wishing they
had bigger sails as they putt putt along. Just yesterday, we sailed all
the way home under fluky conditions while our friends in their
world-class crab crusher struggled with an overheating engine.

begin 666 Denis.vcf

Please don't put vcfs in newsgroups.




--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
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