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Hi Randy

You've picked a great boat, and I hope you will enjoy yours as much as we have enjoyed Threepenny Opera.

FWIW, I replaced all of my 4D's with 6volt Trojan T-125's and tied them into a single large house bank. I am adding a separate group 27 for a starting battery as part of this season's pre-launch stuff. As James pointed out, a larger bank is more useful in heavily loaded environments, provided you have the means to charge the battery back up. The generator will do the job nicely, but if you want to rely on the engine to do the job, would strongly recommend upgrading the factory alternator to a higher output unit with an external regulator.

Last season I found that we really needed to get hooked up to shore power if I wanted to top off the batteries, because the Hitachi alternator is not up to the task by itself. I have a 150 amp truck alternator and 4x130 watt solar panels going on this year to assist with the charging duties because we are headed south, and I want to make sure that I can stay away from marina's if I need to.

When your installer hooks up your inverter, make sure he is using at least 4/0 gauge wire. When I took delivery of TPO, the previous owner told me that he had given up on trying to keep an inverter on board because he had 2 replaced under warranty and when the second quit, he replaced it with a 40amp TruCharge. He had attributed his problems to dirty power where he kept his boat. Upon closer examination, I discovered that the inverter wiring was woefully undersized at 1/0.

It would probably have done the job, in a lightly loaded system, but the previous owner had a microwave, an espresso machine, and a number of other AC appliances aboard, so I imagine the continuous loads were pretty high. I pulled all of the old wire and replaced the charger a Prosine 2000 inverter/charger. So far so good. Some installers will avoid using 4/0 wire because it is very expensive and hard to work with because of its stiffness. They will tell you that since the run from the inverter to the 2 battery bank in the garage is very short, a lighter cable will be fine. I say its better to buy a little insurance by following the conservative side of the sizing chart, than to go the other way for a relatively small saving.

I have added a 4KW Raymarine dome on my boat. IMHO it is the only way to go if you are planning on using it to navigate by in heavy fog or moderate precipitation. The differences are quite remarkable, especially for smaller targets that are close to the boat. I can see racing markers on the 4KW where there was nothing showing on my last boat that was equipped with a 2KW Raymarine. Everything just appears sharper, and therefore more useful for those relatively infrequent times when you really need it.

Good luck with the boat.

Addison

Hi Randy

I know all about money flying out the door! The good news is that eventually you no longer feel it and just end up in a trance like state where you mutter your credit card number, expiry date and cvv2 in your sleep. That said, when I bought my boat, I specifically went looking for a slightly older boat with as few bells and whistles as possible. HAving owned a C320 previously I had an idea of the weak points of Catalinas and the intent was to selectively upgrade to my standards prior to cutting the docklines. I budgeted for the upgrades and factored it into the boat purchase. So far we are on track, and if all goes well, the last few bits will be installed in the next few weeks, and we'll be off in June.

To-date I've spent almost the equivalent of buying a new factory boat with basic options. Some would say I'm nuts to spend that much on a 9 year old hull, but I know every inch of TPO and I am confident that my major systems such as water, heads, power, running rigging etc, are much more reliable than on a brand new factory boat. The good news about Catalina's is that they are very solid boats, and if you left everything as is, you will likely be absolutely fine....annoyed perhaps when a shower sump quits, but otherwise OK.

On the radar question, I can tell you that I had a 2kw on my C-320. I bought that boat new from the factory in 2003 and had the dealer install the radar as part of the commissioning process. My dealer also told me that 2 kw was sufficient for our area (Lake Ontario) and that 4kw was overkill. Over the 3 seasons I used the boat, I can honestly say that I used the radar for navigation/collision avoidance in only 2-3 instances max so the dealer was correct in his advice.

A friend of mine has the 4kw dome unit on his boat. One night we were returning from a night sail and he had his unit spinning, despite it being very clear. I was amazed at the difference between what I could see on his unit, and what I used to see on mine. At ~ 1 mile out for the breakwater entrance, I could actually see the outline of the larger rocks. I could also see a private bouy that marked the end of a water intake for a nearby power plant. On my 2kw, I could definitely see the entrance to the harbour, but I could not make out the invidual rocks and contours, and there was no way I could see the spar bouy, which is hard to see even in daylight.

The 2kw would become useless in anything more that a light drizzle, so it really didn't add much value on those 1 mile visibility days, when the only people out were sailors and the little fishing guys trolling around in their 17 foot outboards. I could often see them visually when the radar was just a big purple blob. If I were staying in Lake Ontario, I would probably forego the radar entirely, because I just didn't get enough utility out of it to justify the expense. Since our cruising plans call for a jaunt down the St. Lawrence however, I figured that radar would be a useful addition. I guess at the end of the day, I took the in for penny... position and put the 4kw on because I didn't want to be wishing I could see better when entering strange fishing ports in dense fog.

My 2 cents worth.

Addison