Jeff,
I have been a participant and contributor to this list for a while. I have come to respect your points of view and thoughts on the dynamics of boats. I have learned a few things from some of your posts and disagreed with other points. Your first post was fine, it was your one single point of view and thats ok.
But you know what? With this last post YOU BLEW IT .
The sailnet message board (like many others) becomes a forum for such a very, very small number of boaters. It becomes a place with a very narrow point of view and posters post in self-aggrandizement glory (you know what I mean - its the same at the CWBB - you are there too). I would dare to say that its the same 20-30 people posting over and over again. With one or two "newbies" a week to drop in and ask questions.
The same 20 posters does NOT, the boating community make ! That is such an unlearned, dangerous & myopic view. I dare say that the total posters of these boards amount to maybe .000001% of the total boating community. And to "assume" that these previous posters were not individual Catalina owners is dangerous and wrong ! So what if these people were not in the member''s directory.....who the hell cares? That member directory isn''t the social listings from Greenwich Conn. Its not important to be in there, except for the few that have no better use of their time and are computer savvy and care to do so.
I happen to belong to the Sailnet Catalina email lists (there are multiple ones) and I can say for a fact that every one of these posters are real individual Catalina owners & contributing posters over there. Jeff, thinking that the boating world begins and ends at this board (or the CWBB) is stupid ! And by doing so you are creating a homogenized vacuum of information of which you are becoming part of. Continuing in this vein only continues to atrophy knowledge and experiences, like a sailor that only sails in his small bay, never venturing out into different seas and conditions.
And YES there ARE many, many, MANY happy Catalina owners out there, many more than the same few people that posted comments on here. So Jeff, you asked on your first post "Look if there are Catalina owners that have better warranty experiences or who have been through the same kind of negative experience, let them post here". Could it possibly be that you "laid down the gauntlet", so to speak, and asked for people with positive Catalina experiences to respond and you were not prepared for all the responses, in such a quick, forceful and resounding way? Could it possibly be, that perhaps, someone from this list saw your first request and posted it on the Sailnet Lists for comments? So Jeff, do not "assume" too much, it might get you in trouble! Do some research, go into all the Catalina Sailnet Lists and see who these people are. In my mind you need to retract your statement....you were "Stone Cold Wrong". (And the Catalina lists are still a very small percentage of Catalina owners -- there are many many more very satisfied that .)
Sorry, and this might bug you, but when it comes to positive Catalina experiences, you are out far numbered & your very small experience might be totally contrary to the other 99% of owners out there. Not saying that Catalina doesn''t drop the ball once in a while (It does), but your one comment and experience has to be put in perspective.
Oh.....and one more thing you lose a LOT of credibility by advising someone to" go aboard a bunch of 10 year old Hunters, Catalinas" . Earlier in your posts you claimed that Hunter has improved its quality over the past few years (which I will tend to agree). But to say that a 1992 Hunter has better quality than a similar 1992 Catalina is a LAUGH !. If anything the early 90''s is when the worse Hunters came out, and its funny because I recall a lot of your previous posts saying the same thing.
Respectfully,
Tom