Catalina Owner Reviews

Serving sailors online since 1997

Review of the Catalina Capri-26 by Larry Bruneau

Year built	1994
Location of boat	Oklahoma
The boat is sailed on	Lakes
How the boat is used	Day sailing
Normal wind strength	10-15 knots
Average size of crew	2-4
Liveaboard?	No
Owner bought the boat in	1999
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again?	No. One of the reasons I bought new instead of used was to save on maintenance. How quick I was to learn otherwise.
Gear that's been added	Johnson 9.9 longshaft with remote controls. A tiller lock for single handed sailing.
Structural or complex improvements
The boat's best features	boat came pretty complete from dealer with not to much else to buy. Sails well. Comfortable for crew and guets. Very large "V" berth.
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc.	Bought the boat new in 1999, launched 2001 pulled it out after 14 months in the water and was suprised to find many water blisters in the (fiberglass covered) fin keel. I didn,t count the blisters yet but it looks like about 100.
Sailing characterisitcs	sails well, all lines led aft make it easy to handle but can clutter the cockpit, good sail shape, at anchor it "wanders" alot possibly because of the high freeboard
Motoring characterisitcs	this is probably the largest catalina you can be comfortable useing an outboard motor, you definitly need the remote controls. The wide beam can make it tricky to dock in higher winds.
Liveability	we only do overnighters in wich the capri is well suited for...plenty of room, comfortable, good head room, good interior lighting, lots of storage
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any)	Very disappointed. They informed me that the (fiberglass covered) Keel was not part of the Gel-Coat five year warranty. That was all they seemed to care about.... they weren't concerned about "how did the blisters form so quickly?" or "what can we do to help or provent this from happening again?" I was polite they were rude.TO sum it up Catalina just didn't care.
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any	Sailboat Shop in Austin Texas a very good dealer, helpfull and courteous I recomend them.
Other comments	Besides the Keel I'm happy with the rest of the boat no blisters in the hull everything works fine

Contact
About
Terms of Use