Catalina Owner Reviews

Serving sailors online since 1997

Review of the Catalina 390 by Ralph Martens

Year built	2001
Location of boat	Northport, NY
The boat is sailed on	Bays, sounds, or protected salt water
How the boat is used	Weekends and longer
Normal wind strength	10-15 knots
Average size of crew	2-4
Liveaboard?	No
Owner bought the boat in	Cone
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again?	Yes!!! Experience has been excellent. The boat has more than met my expectations.
Gear that's been added	Raytheon 6000 Autopilot, In the Mast Furling, Tall Rig, Clarion CD Stereo w/ Remote, Raytheon 7" Color Chartplotter w/ Radar, Raytheon 2KW Radar, Radar-on-the-level, Raytheon ST60 Wind System, ICOM VHF, "Leather", Autoprop, PSY dripless shaft, SPADE Aluminum anchor
Structural or complex improvements	Not complex, but the aft lockers in the cockpit required organization to make them useable.
The boat's best features	Excellent sailing qualities and solid feel of the boat. The boat also has a tremendous amount of space (not storage) for a 39' boat.
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc.	Nothing so far.
Sailing characterisitcs	Outstanding. I am not a racer. I had reservations about the in mast furling system because of the loss of roach and did not expect such good sailing characteristics. Every boat we have 'informally' raced we were able to overtake. This included boats I would have thought to be faster including Ericsons (38), Tartans and Catalina 400s. I cannot recommend the in mast furling system strongly enough.
Motoring characterisitcs	Excellent. At 2000 RPMs the boat makes good approx 6.5 knots. I usually motor the boat in the 1800-2100 RPM range. The autoprop is outstanding, allowing the boat to track straight when backing. As a caution, when initially engaging a gear the autoprop sometimes requires a little extra RPM to adjust the blades.
Liveability	Liveability is excellent. All systems are designed for easy owner maintenance. Biggest drawback is that storage is at a premium and an owner must get creative to store the various things that inevitably begin to fill a boat.
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any)	Have not had a reason to deal with Catalina directly.
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any	Coneys Marine in Huntington, NY is a true family operation. They have been extremely helpful in resolving minor issues and the entire commissioning process went very well. I might also add that they successfully talked me out of spending thousands of extra dollars on options and extras I would have found of minimal use later on (microwave which requires an inverter which ideally requires extra batteries etc.).
Other comments	My previous boat was a Najad, a highly regarded Swedish builder (similar to Halberg-Rasey). The interior of a Catalina shows a lot more fiberglass but the boat is designed for low maintenance and I have found systems to be very well installed (wiring, labels etc). I believe the boat to be an excellent value. Plus its built in America and has very strong owner organization.

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