Northstar 26' or Catalina 25'

I assume that the boat in question is a Northstar 500 and not a Northstar 26 which was not introduced until around 1979. I actually owned a Northstar 500 back in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

While the accomodations are a bit Spartan, these were very nice boats in terms of sailing ability and were very well constructed in all ways. I routinely sailed mine in the Atlantic off Savannah, including in some very big seas and winds. I liked the boat very much. Although essentially the same design, there were two versions of the boat, the 500 and 500 QT. The 500 was optimiized as a MORC boat and the 500 QT was optimized as an IOR Quarter tonner.

My issues with the Northstar would be that the rig proportion was such that these boats depended on very large sail inventories. Mine had six or seven jibs and two spinackers and you really needed to pick the right sail for the wind speed or it seriously hurt performance. I would think that you would at least want a 150%, 135% , 105% and storm jib for cruising. The deck layout and hardware was top-notch for the 1970's but consisted mostly of Merriman winches and blocks. This was well made hadware, but the parts are almost imposible to find (I had a machine shop make parts for me back in the 1980's) and by modern standards it was high friction, and not as powerful as we would spec. today. Also the Northstar has a vee drive which is bit of a PITA if there is alignment, shaftlog, or coupling issues. I had some special tools made which helped some. The Northstar 500 is also pretty deep draft if I recall correctly.

The Catalina 25 is an okay coastal cruiser. They sail reasonably well, and are not all that much slower in moderate conditions than the Northstar. The Catalina is not as robust as the Northstar and does not do as well in heavy going, but it sure has a roomier interior and a layout that is more suitable for living aboard. The outboard is less suitable for crossing the Gulfstream. since you can't keep in the water in a short chop, you can't even use it to charge the batteries. The Catalina might get by with fewer sails in its inventory but it shares a similar rig proportion to the Northstar and so you will need a large genoa for light air, a working jib, and something to use in heavy going. A furler will not solve this problem.

Frankly, neither boat is especially ideal for what you propose to do. If I were in your shoes I would try to find a nicely maintained Tartan 27 which is between the two speeds of these boats but which is a better suited design than the Northstar in terms of accomodations and is a much better built boat than the Catalina.

Jeff

While it is true that some old IOR boats make acceptable cruising boats, having actually owned a Northstar 500, what I found is that the sail plan, which had a very low SA/D and a miniscule mainsail, depended very heavily on carrying very large inventory of the precisely right sized overlapping headsail for the conditions. When you add that the boat was very sensitive to larger heel angle (like most IOR boats of that era- cavitating the rudder and wiping out moderately easily) the boat was easiest to handle with just the right sail on the stay.

The way we used the boat, even cruising the boat would hardly sail in winds under 4-5 knots without using the 170% genoa or the Drifter. By 8 knots of wind, the 170% was over-powered and the drifter was so round that you could not point at all. We typically tried to get by with the #1 (155%) from around 5 knots up to about 10 knots, but around 12 knots with the #1 you were wiping out, even with a reef in the mainsail. In winds above 10 knots but below 15 knots, I peeled down to the #2 (135%), which at the upper end was nicely balanced with a reef but around 15 knots the boat again got pretty squirely so we would peel down to the #3 often with a reef to balance the helm.

I usually used the 155% or 135% daysailing in winds around 5-15 knots. My boat had a track in the foredeck for a removable storm jib, but the boat had a huge amount of weather helm when the storm jib was used without a double reef in the mainsail. The individual sails had a wider wind range when racing with 3-4 guys on the rail.

Back to Puddinglegs point, the reason that I say that roller furling will not help was that the boat was very sensitive to fullness. My boat had a full cut #1 and a flat cut #1. (It also had similar #2's) The full cut was next to useless because the boat would heel too quickly greatly shortening the range of the use of the sail. The same was true of the full cut #2. Since roller furling a sail makes the furled sail fuller, this would not be a good way to go on the Northstar 500.

Jeff