hi All
I'm thinking of upsizing from my beautifu,l fully restored, Cav32.
I mostly singlehand and find the CAV perfect for this.
Here's the kicker, I'm 6'6". Ain't no yacht built for me.......till I saw a Catalina 387.
I can stand inside, with inches to spare, and the aft bed is longer than even me!
Does anyone have any opinions on Catalinas?, and especially how they sail as a wing keel?
All the Catalina forums say there is a lower pointing ability, but unnoticeable reaching and running. I'm a sceptic though....it just doesn't look right.
What does the brain trust think?
cheers
Bruce we have raced our fin keel Catalina 320 against a wing keel Catalina 375 and there was a noticeable difference upwind. We could point much higher than him which made us more competitive against a bigger boat. Off the breeze he was quicker than us although to be fair he also had a folding prop and we had a fixed 3 blade. There were a couple of 320s with wing keels on the Lake and although we never raced against them, we did pace ourselves against them (you only need two yachts to turn it into a race) and we could also go higher and faster than them. Catalinas are a lovely boat, where is the 387?
I race against a couple of fixed and wing keels 320 & 309's. Winged keels always seem to be a bit faster off the breeze, but don't point to windward nearly as well. I suspect the wing keel makes a better cruising boat, especially in the shallower regions.
