Catalina Owner Reviews

Serving sailors online since 1997

Review of the Catalina 25 by Jeff W.

Year built	1983
Location of boat	Huron, Ohio
The boat is sailed on	The Great Lakes
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	1998
If the clock could be turned back, would owner buy again?	Most definitely!
Gear that's been added	Replacesd the plastic seacocks with bronze.
Structural or complex improvements	None
The boat's best features	Easy to work on. Tons of fellow Catalina owners and resources. Parts are easily acquired and inexpensive. Simple design. The pop-top on the my 25 is great since it gives about seven feet of headroom when raised. The fin keel is nice for stability in rough weather on Lake Erie.
Problem areas in terms of design, materials, maintenance, etc.	As mentioned above, the seacock for the sink and icebox stripped last summer. Very easy to replace though. The mast lighting doesn't work, but seems to be pretty straightforward (as most things on this boat) to repare.
Sailing characterisitcs	The boat is responsive. All lines run aft, so sailing singlehanded was never a problem, even in 30 knot winds (though somewhat unnerving).
Motoring characterisitcs	The 9.9 Johnson does an okay job of pushing the boat pretty close to hull speed. I rarely use it, but have had to motor for hours and ~5 knots seems to be its most comfortable speed.
Liveability	I live aboard from Thusday/Friday through Sunday every weekend. With two there is plenty of room. Three is still okay, but any more is pushing it. Although, we have taken weekend cruises with four. The biggest problem is the shifting in the cockpit when tacking/jibing. The fold-down table is great, as is the enclosed marine head. This is the smallest boat in which I could find all these features, although I'm sure one exists.
The owner's experience in dealing with Hunter (if any)
The owner's experience with the boat dealer or broker, if any	I bought it from a broker in Huron, Ohio (Harbor North). They've been great to deal with and made the entire experience truely enjoyable.
Other comments	There still seem to be a lot of Catalina 25's out there on the market. From what I've heard, most people seem to be going right into the 30 boats, so a 25 could be picked up for a relatively cheap price. I have no regrets about my 25. I thought the age of the boat might be an issue, but other than regular maintenance, it still seems to be in fine shape.

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