Cruising Upgrades

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Saildad
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Joined: 4/3/13
Posts: 43
Cruising Upgrades

Hello 36er's
Maverick is hull #1015 fin keel, standard rig 1989 MKI
After a great overnight at Santa Cruz Island (little Scorpions anchorage) this past holiday weekend I have decided to take my great boat out of racing mode and start fitting her out into cruising mode. Note: I have a J24 for local racing and will seek out those that are doing the distance racing.
The first and biggest deal for me will be dinghy davits. I have searched and read the posts on davits and will be going with a Garhauer set up.
If you have done the davit install did you upgrade anything?

what cruising ameneties have all the 36er's done? What worked great and what kinda fell flat?

we already have the garhauer engine crane and it works great. Also have a honda 2000 that meets our needs nicely. Mr Buddy cabin heater works great for cold nights as well.

Thank you so much in advance.

Bill
Maverick 89 #1015
Vintage Marina
Channel Islands Harbor 
Oxnard, CA

ps
if you are in my area over the weekend and would like to sail. look me up!

Lanealoha
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Joined: 2/13/20
Posts: 76

Hey Bill,  Seems we're neighbors.  We're just over at Bahia Marina.  Working on these type of things myself on same vintage and new to me (less than a year) boat.  So far my windlass has been the best upgrade and really the only one right now. I'm painstakingly catching up on years of deferred maintenance and other funny stuff done by the PO.  Anyways, it'll be fun to keep abreast of what you got going on and seeing what others have done.

David Lane
S/V Grace
88' Catalina 36'
Oxnard, Ca
 

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Chachere
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Joined: 10/27/10
Posts: 825

Some cruising enhancements for our Mk I over the years that we liked:
* Swim platform: www.catalina36.org/comment/55328#comment-55328   - getting people and stuff on and off the boat when cruising made much easier; stash place for dingy, added safety measure for MOB (especially when single handing).
* Solar panels: www.catalina36.org/comment/62714#comment-62714 -  We can run the fridge fulltime while cruising, without a generator or running the diesel
* Replace all the lights with LEDs (reduce power demands)
 

Matthew Chachère
s/v ¡Que Chévere!
(Formerly 1985 C36 MKI #466 tall rig fin keel M25)
2006 Catalina Morgan 440 #30.
Homeported in eastern Long Island, NY

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Sojourn
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Joined: 7/14/08
Posts: 163

Hi Bill,
It seems to me that the critical question is how you use the boat.  If you're a weekender and mostly at a dock, the list might be shorter.  If, however, you plan on long, a month or more of remote cruising and anchoring often, I offer this list.

  1. Attend to your electrical needs.  In addition to solar panels, mentioned above, an inverter charger is a good thing.  It allows you charge computers, small power tools, e.g. drills, make coffee or toast for breakfast.  Good monitoring of battery voltage and amp hours is nice to have, you should have a battery isolator for you battery banks. Matching the solar panel output, battery cappacity and inverter output is beyond this discussion, but necessary.
  2. Eliminate as such trash and recycleable as possible.  Use tank water (it should be filtered gooing into the tanks) and a filter pitcher (Brita or Zeero Water) instead of bottled water.  Use sturdy plastic storage continer rather than plastic zip-lock bags.  Some foods can be stored without refrigeration until opened such as self stable milk, dried hash brown potatoes.  Juices are better in larger containers such as 48 oz rather that smaller 12 cans, less space and less recycleables.  
  3. A good and resonable size grill, The Magma Catalina is a good size.  It should be plumbed into you gas system.
  4. While I'm not a fan of "indoor sailing," that is fully enclosed cockpit, I do recommend a sun shade when at anchor it will help cool the whole boat.
  5. Review your anchor gear for size and type.  Your rode should be strong and long enough to handle most any anchorage and winds to 40 kts.  While an all chain rode is probably best a mixed rode is a good option to keep cost and weight done.  I use 120' of chain and 200' of plaited line.  In most anchorages, I'm on an all chain rode, for deeper anchorages a mix.  Along with your windlass you should install a chain stopper if possible and have a chain snubber with 20-30' for nylon line.

Hope this helps.

Lou Bruska
Sojourn
1985 C36 MK1 Hull # 495

 

Lou Bruska
Sojourn
1985 C-36 Mk-I TR #495
Eldean Shipyard
Lake Macatawa (Holland, MI) Lake Michigan
Rallyback@comcast.net

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Chachere
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Joined: 10/27/10
Posts: 825

Good ideas from Lou.  Couple of observations
1) Good battery montioring is indeed important.  Former C36 owner Rodd Collins has some very helpful articles on this on his site:  https://marinehowto.com/  However, one's need for an inverter can be very limited, depending on your lifestyle and adjustments.  Using Lou's list: Our laptops have chargers that run off of the 12 volt system of our boat (its surely not efficient to convert/invert 12 VDC up to 120VAC only to then rectify it back to low voltage DC with the computer charger); most laptops have available "car chargers" that have cigarette lighter plugs. We make coffee can be made on the stove (we use a Moka pot (Bialetti) to make expresso).  Toast, too.  We have a set of small power tools that run off of interchangeable rechargeable batteries.   We do have a small plug-in inverter, but almost never have a need for it.
2. You can also consider installing an inline water filter for the tank water.  We have one that is plumbed to a seperate faucet at the galley, so that the filter doesn't have to handle the load of all the other uses the tank water gets (and because the water comes out pretty slowly if its filtered)

Matthew Chachère
s/v ¡Que Chévere!
(Formerly 1985 C36 MKI #466 tall rig fin keel M25)
2006 Catalina Morgan 440 #30.
Homeported in eastern Long Island, NY

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Catboat Willy
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Joined: 12/22/14
Posts: 385

Lots of good ideas here. One big help we found was to have the standard size salon table cut and install a piano hinge to make a drop leaf table. It allows for folks to pass each other while below decks.  We did incorporate all of Tom's mods on s/v; 'Julandra' 
Bill
Hull # 1041
 

Bill Dolan 1990 Catalina C-36 MKI - Hull #1041  'Williwaw'
Std. Rig, Walk Through, Wing Keel
M35, Oberdorfer Conversion,
Home Waters; Charlotte  Harbor & The Gulf Islands of Florida
'You are never out of work if you own a boat'

 

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