anxiety in buying a boat

[garyp]

Seems to me a missed point here is that it took three people to put a reef in the main when the wind piped up. Any 36 footer which requires three people to reef the main would be out of the question, in my mind. Especially for a first boat on which one of the crew is not a sailor.
I would look for a different Catalina 36 if everything else about this boat seems right.
In mast reefing was never a good idea, in my opinion.
Best of luck.

[tsenator]

So Casey1004....Todays Monday Oct 27th.
Did you buy the boat? Did you change your mind, put the mast in, launch the boat & take it on a sea trial? Saturday was beautiful around here, it would have been a nice day to take her out.

BTW you still have a few weeks of good weather to take a boat out around here, just gotta pick your days and get in before the sun goes down (thats when it really gets cold)....it might satiate you through that long winter without sailing

[tsenator]

garyp,

I have a very big question which there probably won''t be an answer for. Why did it take 3 people to put a reef in the main? Even with the in-mast furler. It sounds like they didn''t know the system and the nuances to make it work. I have heard it takes a little while to "get the system down", that includes knowing where to set the vang, adjusting the relationship of the outhaul to the furler, etc, etc. Did they ''dump the traveller''?" Did they head into the wind a bit to relieve pressure on the main? I can sail my standard mast/135% genny C36 up to 25 knots of wind without reefing. Yes it''s just about time to reef, but its a pretty stiff boat (<16 Sa/D) and not too big a deal (pushing 20+ deg heel hard on the wind). Maybe I know how to use the cunningham, etc & really flatten the main to blade it out and dump the traveller.

I have an autopilot and with single line reefing and dutchman (which comes standard on C36) I can reef the main alone. I do it all the time and I never have to leave the cockpit. If I had an in-mast furling mainsail, I''d be able to do the same thing.

ps. Yes, with the single line reefing there are issues such as extra long reefing lines, chafe and extra reefing line friction -- but if that bothered me too much it wouldn''t take that much to convert to a dual line reefing system in which one person could utilize from the cockpit.

[Jeff_H]

I suspect that it took three people; one to steer, one to carefully and slowly ease the outhaul in order to end up with a flat sail when reefed, and one to bring in the furling line. That is actually the proper procedure when reefing rather than furling.

Jeff

[casey1004]

I''ve signed the acceptance form and I close on the boat next week. I''ll find out next spring the nuances of the furling main. Most people I talk too say the new systems are pretty foolproof and only jam/cause problems due to operater error. Ideally I would have preferred in-boom furling but this seems to be very expensive. On most new boats this option adds as extra $10k.

[tsenator]

Congrats and good luck.

You should seriously think about joining your Local C36 Fleet (Fleet 5) http://www.catalina36.org/Fleet5/ . They are very active and set up all sorts of rendevous, get togethers - dinners'', seminars, etc etc. They are probably the most active C36 fleet in the country. They are great bunch of guys/gals and the support system is wonderful. It costs almost nothing and gets you automatic membership into the Internatinal C36 organization http://www.catalina36.org/ and a subscription to Mainsheet, which is Catalina''s quarterly magazine which has stories, events and tech notes that are very valuable.

Also you might think about their Sister organization LISCA (Long Island Sound Catalina Assoc). That co-sponser events etc, etc. http://www.saillisca.com/home.html