Catalina Owner Reviews

Serving sailors online since 1997

Review of the Catalina 400 by John Lehman

Year built	1999
Location of boat	Texas
The boat is sailed on	Open ocean
How the boat is used	Weekends and longer
Normal wind strength	16-22 knots
Average size of crew	2-4
Liveaboard?	No
Owner bought the boat in	2004
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again?	For the amount of money I had to spend on a boat, absolutely. If I had the resources I might buy a Pacific Seacraft 40, but for the money and given the size of boat I wanted I don't think the 400 can be beat.
Gear that's been added	Added a Raymarine color chartplotter in the cockpit, replaced the battery charger with a new Xantrex, new AGM batteries, replaced the canvas.
Structural or complex improvements	None.
The boat's best features	Roomy cockpit, seakindly, stable, comfortable, quick for the size and weight. I've sailed in some pretty strong gales and I've never had any concern about the boat.
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc.	As some others have mentioned, I've had some smells from the forward head that I can't seem to get rid of. I'm about to replace the hoses around the forward macerator pump because the smell seems to be pretty powerful around there. When offshore where I can pump it out regularly it isn't a problem, but when I spend a long time close in it's an issue. The aft A/C unit raw water strainer is installed in such a way that the pump must be reprimed each time you check it. It's kind of a hassle, but nothing serious. It came with a Fischer Panda 4kw generator that, in spite of have had it pulled and rebuilt, has never worked when it was needed. If I had the money to replace it I'd pull it out and drop it overboard. Right now it's basically just a small rust farm. Also, the main hatch in the v-berth has a leak that I have not been able to chase down. My next step is going to be replacing the hatch. Except for the generator I'd say everything is normal wear-and-tear type stuff.
Sailing characterisitcs	Wonderful! It does 6-8 knots with very little effort. I plan on adding an asymmetrical soon for light air - it needs about 10 knots to get it to move much with the genoa so I end up motoring much more than I want to. Above 15 knots, though, it's a lot of fun.
Motoring characterisitcs	The Yanmar (this is a 1999 build of a 2000 Mark II model) is great. Never had any problem with it, and it seems to sip fuel. I seldom run it above 2400 rpm, and it will do 6.5 to 7 knots at that level. I'm constantly surprised at how little fuel it uses. It is, however, very noisy, which makes sleeping in the aft cabin a challenge during overnight passages. I will look into upgrading the sound insulation one of these days. In the meantime, earplugs work wonders.
Liveability	I will be living aboard soon, and I feel that it should be fine. It could use more storage, but most boats could. I'd also like to have about twice the fuel capacity or more but you can't have everything.
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any)	I've dealt with Catalina in Florida and they've been great. Warren Pandy has given me a lot of good advice, saved me from replacing the rudder when it developed a crack (a local Florida yard said it needed to be replaced, but after viewing some pictures Catalina gave them instructions on how to fix it) and had new sole boards built to replace ones warped by a leak. All in all I have nothing but positive things to say about Catalina.
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any	I used Dave Jackson at Higgins, Smythe and Hood in Kemah, Texas. He was extremely helpful and has continued to be a valuable resource for us.
Other comments	I just sailed from Jacksonville through the Abacos, to Key West and up the west coast of Florida to Panama City - about 1400 miles in 3 weeks or so. Except for the generator driving me crazy, the boat has been a pleasure to sail and to live on. I would gladly just keep on going! And I can't count the number of positive comments I've gotten on the boat. I called a marine plumber for help at one point. He told me that he only worked on power boats because sailors are too cheap (!) but agreed to work on my boat because he likes Catalinas so much. Even had a Hunter owner tell me he kicks himself for not buying a Catalina 400!

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