Saildad misses you guys

Hello all Vikings
this is my report from the darkside.
We are loving our Catalina 42. She is a great liveaboard boat with the expected TONS of room for my future wife and I. We have been to the Channel Islands several times and are only stopped by crappy weather. Speaking of crappy weather. As some of you good folks might know its been a bit wet here in SoCal of late. Our new to us boat developed a leak at the forward hatch when we get a good bit of rain. This normally wouldn't be a big deal but the leak occurs right over the admirals back when she need to use the facilities in the middle of the night. So most can see why this project skyrocketed its way to the top of the short project list that we have on our new boat.
I removed the hatch for a rebedding job and ran into issues straight away. Turns out the hole for the hatch was cut WAY too big. the hole was fillied with silicone between inner trim ring and the cutout then the hatch was installed. the screws in the aft section of the hatch were drilled into the silicone barely making it into wood. see the attched photos for a good look.
the other bummer was that at the port aft corner there is barely a 1/16 of sealing surface!
I am awaiting the return of normal business hours to talk to the manufacturer. I have heard they are pretty good with helping out there owners..WE"LL SEE.
After all here is the real point to all this story.
There is a Catalina 42 website www.catalina42.org
this is an OK web site. NOTHING like this awesome place!
I thought I would post about my issues with my hatch to see if anyone has done this rebed job and asked for suggestions from the otheres on the site. I have to tell you I have never seen so much apathy in my life!! It was as if I was posting on frigin wall facing the freeway!! I am very disappointed.
As you all know that I am good with my hands and will end up rebuilding the material on the hatch cutout to tto add support and sealing area to the boat if I get no help from the factory. Its just a shame that there isnt more input from the Cat 42 owners
the only thing I figure is that the other Cat 42 owners have all their work done for them or are too busy to respond..<<shrug>> who knows
Anyway.. thanks for listening
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all
Love to the family to David in Annapolis
Capt BIll & Tina
Our Porpoise
Catalina 42
hull #695
2cabin wing keel
former owner of
"On PorpoiseII
74 E35

Hey Bill,
Is this a brand new C42?
I'm a member of the Catlina 25 association and we have a very active site with lots of help. I have gotten help from the Catalina 34 association when it comes to questions on my Universal 25x on my Ericson 32.
One of the Catalina 25 owners had a C42 for a while and he didn't have good words about the C42 association.

Call Frank Butler directly with Catalina and I'll bet he'll make it right for you. Sounds like you got a heap of glass work to do to correct the sloppy factory work. Good luck with the Admiral too.

Keep us posted

Hatch replacement narrative

Hi Bill,
I can only relate some of the details of our forward hatch replacement on our boat in about 1995. Lewmar size 70. In our case it was installed very well by Ericson but the first owner had bent the hatch. Yeah, really. It would not latch down or seal...

Since the original "roll stop" hinges were toast anyway we just replaced the whole thing.
In our case the hatch and frp opening were a good fit, but the backing wood under the deck around that opening was something like pine or some other soft wood, stuck in with the usual poly mush. Just 1 X 1 or 1 X 2 pieces. I replaced that with some 1 X 2 oak that I had set aside... Set and clamped all pieces in thickened epoxy. Filled all the old holes with thickened epoxy since the new hatch did not quite match up hole-wise. Reattaching the headliner was actually one of the harder parts (once hatch is in place the staples are invisible).

My work did not change the deck cut-out in any way, altho I could have easily changed the opening by a half inch in either direction and the outer frame would cover/conceal the change...

Usual procedure: drill, dry-fit, epoxy new holes, re-drill, and finally fit it in a thick bed of sealant and torque down. The long bolts that hold the hinges were deadended in SS "barrel unts" that are dead flush with the headliner inside. Nothing protrudes to snag the skin on your noggin.

No leaks & no problems. One bit of luck for me was that at that time Lewmar USA was selling their "returns and blems" out of a warehouse at their HQ in Conneticut and I got the new hatch from them at a healthy discount. (Dime size nick in the inner spigot, if you know exactly where to look...)

Good luck on your hatch refit and let us know how it works out.

Regards,
Loren

Hi Bill,

that is a real bummer to see. I think Loren's approach of building a new frame is probably the best track here. Really interested to see what support you get from the factory on this.

Merry Christmas to you and TIna! Come back for a sail this week and I promise we'll have wind this time!

ANZ531>533-252100-
CHESAPEAKE BAY FROM POOLES ISLAND TO SANDY POINT-
CHESAPEAKE BAY FROM SANDY POINT TO NORTH BEACH-
CHESAPEAKE BAY FROM NORTH BEACH TO DRUM POINT-
418 AM EST THU DEC 25 2008

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON


TODAY
NW WINDS 15 TO 20 KT WITH GUSTS TO 25 KT THIS
MORNING...DIMINISHING TO 10 KT THIS AFTERNOON. WAVES 2 TO 3 FT.

Hey Bill,
Sorry to hear about your hatch problems and hopefully it will get repaired correctly. I don't have any advice - Loren's solution sounds like a good idea.

B-T-W Serenidad survived Ike without a scratch and from what I found so far all of the Ericsons in the area had little or no damage.

Best of luck in 2009!

Kevin
s/v Serenidad E34