RE: catalina27-talk: C350 opinions

[Phil Agur]

He should be asking about the qualifications of the service personnel at the dealership.   In talking with Catalina owners about what went wrong with their new boats I have yet to hear a story that can actually be attributed to Catalina Yachts. Being a retired Q&R Manager it’s in my nature to listen and probe for the kind of details it takes to assign a root cause.   A very common thread is to hear of electrical problems. When you start to probe into what kind of problems you find it was in the dealer installed accessories. The biggest problem is these guys are use to doing trailer light wiring quality work when your expectation should be US Naval quality workmanship. Sure 12Volts is common to cars, trailers, RV but a constant salt fog or high humidity environment is not common to dry land applications.   Our boat went electrically dead in the first 30 days, around midnight in the middle of SF Bay. When I pulled the electrical panel I found a lot of 10 AWG crimp terminals wiring up various panel items. Amongst then I could see factory machine crimped terminals and a bunch of deformed terminals with a pattern of evenly spaced serrations in the insulation. The technician had used common water pump pliers to crimp the terminals leaving this classic unmistakable finger print of hack workmanship. One of these poorly done crimps was the culprit. All on the suspect crimps were soldered 10 years ago and none of these or the original factory crimps (left unsoldered) have ever failed again.   Even though I was once qualified by the military to assemble on manned space flight hardware (or maybe because of this) I don’t trust myself to get consistent perfect results using common pliers action crimp tools. Instead I spend the money on the proper ratchet style crimp tool. These tools do not release the crimp until the full crimp stroke is completed. Because of there design being hot, tiered, rushed, or a working in a contorted position does not impact the quality of the connection. The connection by the way is intended to be gas tight all the way around not just on two sides.   So I might ask to meet the yard staff in the shop. Specifically the staff the will be assigned to installing your accessories and ask to see their crimp tools. When you close the handles they should emit a series of fine clicks and not open again until a clunk is heard when fully closed. If they pull out a flimsy stamped steel combination unit the cuts screws and strips wire then you need to talk back in the office.   Obviously for the cost of a C350 the dealer should be willing to buy his staff the right tools.      Phil Agur                    s/v Wing Tip Commodore,             Call Sign WCW3485 IC27/270A                   MMSI 366901790 www.catalina27.org      Vessel Doc# 1039809 -----Original Message----- From: catalina27-talk@memberclicks.com [mailto:catalina27-talk@memberclicks.com] On Behalf Of Mark Tamblyn Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 1:17 PM To: catalina27-talk@memberclicks.com Subject: catalina27-talk: C350 opinions     A good friend of mine is almost at the point of purchasing a brand new Catalina 350.   Is there anything that he should be looking for or discussing with the dealer other than the final options, ground tackle and instruments. It sure looks like a great boat I couldn’t find much that wasn’t exactly to my liking.   They are looking for a solid cruising boat for maybe 2 week trips on the Chesapeake bay and beyond.   Mark Tamblyn C27 Josephine Gloucester Point VA