The Cat's Tales

Catalinas of Santa Monica Bay and Catalina 36 – Fleet #1

January 2003

John Celick — Newsletter Editor\Treasurer

http://www.catalinasmbay.org/

From the Captain of the Fleet:

“New Years Greetings to all our members. Here's looking forward to this year's meeting, socials, and sailing events. 
 
“First, let's thank Gene Levinthal and his fine team of supports for their efforts on behalf of the fleet. They organized some very good meetings and events for us.
 
“You might have noticed the new masthead and ‘burgee.’ First, please note that the ‘Catalina 36 – Fleet #1’ is not going away… we are simply expanding the name to include all Catalinas. We think this name change will encourage more participation from other Catalina owners and be a bit more inviting. If anyone has any questions or comments about this or any other fleet item.
 
“We ended the year, in December, with our annual Holiday social and gift exchange (or gift grab !). Mary Ann Mendel again provided us with a very nice meeting room and the catered food was very well received (…and consumed). Charlene and others helped in the preparation and clean-up. The gift exchange was fun and there were some very desirable gifts that quickly reached their ‘You can't take this away from me’ limit. 

“At our first meeting in 2003, Mr. Fred Hoffman will be our speaker. Fred has been in the boat rigging business for many years in MDR and is an avid long distance sailor and racer. He will be speaking on the history of the Trans-Pac race and the famous racers and boats that have participated. He and his son have raced the Trans-Pac and he will be telling about that adventure. This should be a very interesting talk since many local sailors sail this race, and it starts just off our Southern California shores. Please be prompt due to some time constraints of Mr. Hoffman.”

Your Fleet Captain, Hal Avery

Membership Note:

Two little items: The dues notice and envelope is included. Please just send in your check right now. The faster we get the info and your check… the faster we can produce the roster and our goal is to have it in you hands in February.

Second item is… now that we are “Catalinas of Santa Monica Bay,” please welcome all the Catalina owners that you know to our next meetings. We hope that new members will re-invigorate participation.

Gisela Dawson

TECH TALK: What to do about those hatches?

Last summer I noticed that all the portholes (side windows above the deck) and hatches had become cloudy with small bubbles and cracks. I think this condition is called “crazing.” The deterioration was so gradual that I didn’t notice it until I began to examine them closely. Slowly, time and sun had conspired to block wide viewing and I couldn’t avoid replacing them. My “MKII” boat is ten years old and this crazing had happened even though I always covered my hatches with “sunbrella” covers when in port.

I wanted to be sure they would be easy to change and fit properly so I called Charlie at Catalina Yacht Anchorage to order the side windows for me from the original manufacturer, Lewmar. It took 4 to 5 weeks for them to arrive and the total cost for the four windows was $133.00. Removing the old ones and installing and new one’s was “a piece of cake!” This was really a one hour job that took only one hour.

Encouraged by my new expertise in window changing, I moved on to change the two large forward hatches and the smaller head hatch. Lewmar, the manufacturer, recommended Marine Windshield in Costa Mesa as the company able to install new lenses in the existing aluminum frames. Is not an easy job and it’s important to prevent leaks.

Prior to starting on the hatches, I decided to checkout Marine Windshield in Costa Mesa. The shop gave me a good impression from the type and amount of work going on and they cautioned me about the removal of the aluminum frames… “Don’t bend the frames” and don’t tighten them down tightly for about a week after installation.

First, I had to carefully remove the frames from the deck. The smaller hatch had many screws thru the edge of the frame into the deck. The larger hatches were thru-bolted which I loosened from below. Using a flat, strong, knife and being very careful not to bend the frame, I slowly cut away the calking under the frames “lip.” Here the most import thing is “Don’t bend the frame.” I covered the hatch holes with plastic and taped them down.

One week after delivering the frames to Marine Windshield, I picked up the frames with the new lenses installed. Installing the frames was easy because I had carefully cleaned off all the old caulking. This gave me a good chance to re-caulk the frames which I did generously.

The total cost for the two large hatches and the smaller one was $518.00. Was it worth it? Very much so! I notice the clear windows and hatches every time I go on to the boat. Subsequent to my experience, Jeff Briggs replaced his four small side windows. He was also well satisfied. He said the windows were just a hair thinner, but that this posed no problem. He said his cost was about $100.

Marine Windshield

1021 W. 18^th Street

Costa Mesa, CA 92627

Phone (949) 645-1011

Fax (949) 650-9286

Hal Avery

TECH TALK: What to do about those hatches? (Continued)

Editors Note:

My side windows and hatches have not fogged up even though they weren’t covered prior to my owning the boat. However, since 1983, the Bowmar hatches have gotten pretty rough looking. Early last spring I hired Rick Baker of Spectrum Marine to see what his crew could do about cleaning up the hatches. I think that the worst job was stripping the paint off down to the metal, which they did very nicely, in place. They applied zinc oxide primer paint before painting the hatches white. They even found new rubber seals. The finishing touch was the beautiful job they did of cleaning the lenses. I was really impressed and the total cost was $350 for the large hatch over the salon and the small hatch over the head.

Rick Baker, Spectrum Marine

(310) 306-1825

John Celick

Coming Events

Date:	Event:	Remarks:
Tuesday, January 21st	Meeting	Mexican Food Pot Luck Dinner at SMWYC, Speaker is Fred Hoffman on the TransPac
Tuesday, February 18th	Meeting	Pizza Dinner at SMWYC, Speaker TBA

Meetings are on the 3rd Tuesday of the month at the Santa Monica Windjammers Yacht Club, 13589 Mindinao Way,

Cocktails at 6:30, Dinner at 7:30