Over the years I have seen several posts where a member was voicing his frustration in dealing with Catalina Yachts parts department.
Today I had a question for them, I will confess that my experience in the past with the west coast parts department had been a bit frustrating, some of this may have been due to the physical relocation of spares and staff changes.

I had noted an attempt to make some changes to CY's parts support was in the works and as noted in Larry Brandt's notes from his factory tour posted in our most recent Jibsheet #8. The parts managers name is Ken Roy and in Larry's tour article it was noted that Ken's prefered meathod of comunication of parts requests would be email but, his email was not posted in the article. Let me give that to you all now it is: [email]KEN@CATALINAYACHTS.COM[/email].

Let me also note that the reason for Ken's desire for email requests is not due to his being impersonal and not wanting to talk to you but, due to the fact it gives him a contact trail and he finds it more easily organized than his note pad. Ken also gave me some clue to his frustration on some parts issues on earlier boats. This is due to the fact that the C34 and C36 were made in California and production ceased prior to the move and not all info and knowledge of them was transfered to the Florida facility, the C42 was made in both locations and more data is available to him on this boat. Another reason he likes email is that on the early boats especialy the 34's & 36"s he may be challenged to come up with the exact replacements, to better help locate the exact part he strongly suggests that you email him a picture of the part and any dimensions available so he may have a better chance of locating what you need.

I was truely impressed by Kens desire to help support our fleet and its parts needs. If you have had a sour experience in the past, I suggest you give Ken a chance to renew your faith in Catalina Yachts, next time you have a need drop him an email, my guess is you will be pleased with his response.