Love my new to me '83 C36 (#114). One item stands out though as "Why did they do something so cheap?" The cabin top dorades or cowl vents are basically two wide open holes with no baffle to divert water. Portside is a solar vent, starboard is a flimsy rubber plastic vent. In the cabin underneath is a plastic screw in "seal" five or six inches across, at the bottom of this hole in the boat. Let it rain, the hole can fill with water, and of course the things leak a bit.
Why no real dorade with an internal diverter? Does anyone have a recommendation for the right size or model for this design? I see Toms and Jerries out there, not sure of best fit.
Advice happily taken.
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S/V Tao
Catalina 36
1983, Hull #114
I'm not sure it came that way from the factory. Most MkI boats came with a SS "mushroom" vent under the white plastic cowling. The mushroom was opened and closed with a thumbscrew from below. It's possible/probable that the PO took yours out, and replaced them with whatever. There have been numerous articles posted of owners repainting, replacing, repairing, and even upgrading to SS cowlings. Hope this helps.
Tom Sokoloski
C36/375IA Past Commodore
Noank, CT
'83 boats came with a SS mushroom type vent inside of a plastic dorade box with a cowl on top. The plastic bits on mine were in really rough shape when I got the boat a year or two ago now.
I managed to loop the mainsheet around the cowls during the first few jibes we did, that got rid of the ugly cowls. Then I took the dorade boxes off, since without a cowl they tended to fill with water quicker than they could drain, which then made the mushrooms leak.
Then I cleaned and polished the SST mushroom vents, and voila, they look fantastic, don't leak, and don't get snagged/wrapped up in ropes. They don't circulate quite as much air as they did with cowls over them, but in the PNW that isn't a huge issue, and opening them at night still dramatically reduces the condensation we get inside.
The screw adjustment from inside the boat doesn't really let you tighten the mushroom down all that well, but once you have access to the top of them you can really screw them down tight for open water passages and then they don't leak.
Frankly if I didn't have the mushroom vents I would just plug the holes as they do reduce one's options for running halyards under/through the traveller area and back to the cockpit, but if you want vents, this seems a good solution.
Jason V
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Thanks for the replies. My '83 has the plastic cowl sitting right on the deck top, just pressed on a ridge. No evidence of any mod that might have been a dorade box, no filled drill holes, etc. If a PO change, very odd they'd just leave two open holes on top of the boat. Who knows. I might just cover and close. Lines from the mast are very neatly set up, run through what appear to be (maybe a mod?) designed holes beneath the dodger.
Thanks
Dan
S/V Tao
S/V Tao
Catalina 36
1983, Hull #114
Why don't you attach a photo to your Forum posts here so we can see what you're seeing?
(Your photo won't upload if it exceeds the maximum photo size of about 310kb.)
Larry Brandt
S/V High Flight #2109
Pacific Northwest, PDX-based
2002 C-36 mkII SR/FK M35B