American Airlines Sailing Club Catalina Skipper Checkout Training should last 3 to 4 hours and additional sessions as required Training/maneuvers in a minimum of 10 MPH wind up to 20, training in a lower wind is encouraged as well, depending your comfort level it may be best to have a session in calm winds followed by higher winds. All maneuvers in close quarters to be performed with a crew standing by the extra fender and boat hook. All maneuvers to be briefed by the Instructor prior to and during the maneuver, debriefed by both the Instructor and the member. Catalina 25 Systems and Procedures The Catalina is a great boat, fast and easy to sail, and below are many of the things that Skippers need to know and understand. Boarding Safety. Important: Once the boat is in the water, pull the stern to starboard and retie the starboard stern line with a cleat hitch to the aft cleat on the boat, so the boat is close to the pier and stable to board. If you don t do that, there is way too much lateral movement of the boat in the slip for safe boarding and a real danger of someone slipping and falling between the boat and the dock. Aboard. Open the boat, check for fumes, stow gear, get the book, sign the releases, go through the checklist. Safety issues, at the dock or underway. The boom hangs low over the cockpit and expect to hit your head, especially if you are wearing a hat with a bill on it, and especially if you are coming up from below. Moving to the foredeck. The side decks are very narrow and your feet can get trapped easily, especially moving past the shrouds. Always use a hand hold. Catalina 25 Systems and Procedures Page 1
On the narrow foredeck, the lifelines are not useful since they are fastened to the bottom of the bow pulpit. Extreme care and hand holds must be used, especially underway, when hoisting and especially when dousing the jib. The danger of losing a man overboard is highest here, with the engine running and the prop turning, heading into the wind. I suggest you require an emergency drill with the call man overboard off the bow and make each skipper do an emergency motor shut down. See below: Hoisting the jib. Everyone on the foredeck while underway should wear a PFD. Lowering (raising) the motor. When the boat is fully in the water & floating free, the motor may be lowered. To lower the engine, move the lever to lower position, pull up on the motor to allowing the locking bolt to reposition and then allow to the motor to lower. To raise the motor, move the lever to raise position, push the motor down allowing the locking bolt to reposition and then pull to raise the motor, making sure the locking bolt reengages. Note: The horizontal locking pins in the engine lift bracket some time requires manually moving it to the correct position. Before starting, as usual, check the gas (two stroke, oil & gas mixture 50:1), open the vent, and pump the bulb. If cold, pull out the choke on the front of the engine. Make sure the throttle/shifter is in neutral, it won t start in gear. Turn the key to the right and the engine should spin, then start. Push the choke in and let idle to warm up. Check for cooling water outflow. Put it in forward to confirm thrust, same for reverse, then back to neutral to warm. Main sail preparation. Mainsail cover off and stow, as usual, attach main halyard (red) to head of mainsail. Sail ties on. The aft end of the boom should be attached to backstay pigtail. Attach lower snap shackle of the boom vang to the bail at bottom of the mast, if it wasn t. Jib Sail preparation. Unhook the jib halyard snap shackle from the aft end of the blue jib sailbag, then unzip the front of the sailbag from around the forestay and stow the bag below deck. Attach the jib halyard to the head of the jib, checking to see if all the hanks are on the forestay. You will need to attach the tack of the jib to the snap shackle on the deck. If changing the jib, run the jib sheets (which are always left attached to the clew for both jibs) outside the shrouds and through the fairleads and back to the winches. Either leave the jib rolled up at the bow or stretch it back on either the port or starboard deck and secure it till it s time to hoist. There are two jibs, a 110 and the 140 genoa. It s the Skippers responsibility to use the appropriate sail for the wind conditions, and that means swapping sails if necessary. It s just a convenience to leave the jib hanked on and stowed in the blue sail bag on the forestay. Departing the dock. Cast off seven lines: two bow, two stern, the starboard aft spring from the midship cleat and both forward spring lines from the aft cleats, leaving them all on the dock. Catalina 25 Systems and Procedures Page 2
Disconnect the shore power line. Check for wind and traffic, put throttle in reverse at just over idle speed, motor straight aft until the bow is clear, then stern to starboard. Put it in forward and motor out. Please be carry full with the engine tiller, DO NOT pull the end up or push the engine down with the engine tiller. Only us the tiller for steering the engine under power. Turning radius the boat is very steerable with the engine tiller with assistance with the boat tiller. Using just the engine tiller for leaving and arriving the slip is recommended since the boat tiller will not have enough water flow to make if effective at the slow speed. Hoisting the main. Detach the boom from the backstay pigtail and be prepared for the boom to drop into the cockpit. (When we unstep the mast in the near future, we will install a boom topping lift, as well as a new steaming light.) When hoisting the main, the sail slugs do not easily slide past the slot covers, so plan on hoisting and releasing the main halyard to jiggle each slug through the cover plates. Do not force! Send someone forward to align the slugs, if necessary. Release the boom vang before raising the main sail. Do not use the winch to raise the sail, only to tension the luff once it s fully up by hand. Mainsail trim. Once hoisted, check the outhaul at the aft end of the boom, and that it is secure in the cam cleats. Check and adjust the downhaul on the port side of the mast, just below the boom, if necessary. Tension the boom vang as desired. Tacking. With the mainsheet coming off the end of the boom, it can get fouled around the tiller when the lines are slack in the middle of a tack. Also, the helmsman can get trapped behind the main sheet lines on a port tack on the low side of the boat. Planning ahead will solve most of those issues. Hoisting the jib. Head toward wind, practice a man overboard/emergency engine shut down by turning the key off. When hoisting the jib, there was some resistance, and it came up in fits and spurts. Don t know why yet but I suspect it s the many hanks not perfectly aligned. The jib sheets are exceptionally long and a prop fouling issue. Line Checks are a frequent must do. In the cockpit, there are four foresail winches, the larger forward two are for the jib and the smaller aft set are for the spinnaker, and there are jam cleats for each. Whisker pole on a run. We have an extendable whisker pole (twist and turn to lock) for the jibs, with a short plastic spike on the end that goes into the clew grommet, and a locking latch on the other end that hooks onto the ring on the front of the mast. To use the whisker pole for a downwind run (wing on wing) a crewman will need to go to the foredeck, extend the pole to about 175% of its compressed length (when flying the 140 genoa), then stick the spike into the clew grommet (may take several tries and the cooperation of someone in the cockpit to trim or ease the working jibsheet, and then hook the latch end on the mast ring. The whisker Catalina 25 Systems and Procedures Page 3
pole must be set forward of the forward shroud, and then the working jibsheet should be trimed so that the whisker pole is not pulled back against the forward shroud. To remove the whisker pole, ease the jibsheet, unhook the latch, withdraw from the clew, compress and stow. Night sailing. The steaming light is inoperative for now, so use the anchor light to indicate that you are under power. Additionally, a local game warden has been giving tickets to correctly lit sailboats, saying that we are supposed to have a 360 degree white light like a fishing boat. That s a separate battle to fight, but for now, under sail or under power, have both the anchor and nav lites on at night. Cabin pop top. In the slip or if you anchor out, raising the pop-top makes the cabin open, airy and delightful. But getting it open is difficult and dangerous due to its weight and having to move it forward to the mast and locking it in place. To raise it, first disconnect the lower end of boom vang and wrap it around the boom. Then, from inside the cabin, loosen the four lugs that secure the pop top down and clear them from their brackets. Standing just forward of the hatch opening, with both hands, lift, push up and forward until the pop-top touches the mast. Without letting go and still holding it forward against the mast, slide the clip in the mast slot upward so it secures the top from moving aft and tighten the wingnut. Additionally, I would tie a line through the top of the legs, then around the mast to further secure it. To lower it, lower the mast clip and try to hold the top as it moves aft and down so it does not slam down. Typically a couple of the lugs will not seat and you ll have to lift the top slightly so they seat properly. Dousing the jib. Reread Moving Forward and Foredeck Safety issues, and review emergency engine shutdown. Send a crewman forward to gather and control the jib as it comes down. Roll and twist the sail into a ball, with a couple of wraps of the jib sheet around it to secure it temporarily. Do not try to stow it in the blue sailbag now, only later at the dock. Stowing the sails. Jib: once in the slip, flake and stow into the sail bag. Place the jib first and the clew last allowing the sheets to exit the bag. Secure the jibs sheets as we do on the rest of the fleet. Zip and close the bag around the forestay. Connect the jib halyard to the white tab on the aft end of the bag and hoist the jib halyard so the bag rests a foot off of the deck. Mainsail: Attach the boom to the pigtail, flake and secure as usual, install the sail cover. Raise the engine, as described above. Using the head (porta-potty). I recommend lining the head with a plastic bag that can be easily taken ashore, if the head is used at all. Otherwise, it s the skipper s responsibility to remove, clean and return the porta-potty. Catalina 25 Systems and Procedures Page 4
The bilge. There is no deep bilge on the Catalina, nor an electric bilge pump, only the hand operated pump mounted under the cockpit seat on the port side. The hand pump may not work at this time more to follow. Electrical. The bottom switch on the electric panel (mounted aft of the sink), acts as the master switch, which then powers the other switches. Other. The anchor and rode are in the anchor locker in the foredeck (unknown length at this writing). There is a barbeque in the port lazarette. Spare docklines are in the small starboard lazarette. There is one winch handle. The water at the sink does work and the tank has been cleaned, bleached and refilled. The sink and ice box drains directly into a through hull under the stove. There is a tool kit under the port settee in the cabin, as well as other lines. The alcohol stove is inoperative. Securing the boat. Note: the sailboat will remain in the water just about the lift during the sail season. Make sure the boat remains over the lift when docking to ensure boat does not sink if it were to take on water. If necessary to raise the sailboat on the lift, follow the checklist, and be sure to follow the pedestal instructions to raise the boat on the lift: attach five docklines: the two long forward springlines on the aft cleats, two stern lines looped over the aft cleats (having uncleated the starboard sternline used to hold the boat close to the dock), one aft spring line on the starboard midship cleat, the shore power line plugged in and the two bow lines off. Then raise the boat on the lift and when fully raised, place bow lines on forward cleats. Lift procedures: The lift pedestal and the companionway lock combination is 125 for both locks. Each Skipper needs to familiar with the follow instructions. once familiar with the system, the boat checklist has the step to remind you of the order. To lower the boat: bow lines off, open aft valves, open forward valves. Don t just show them make them do it. Once down, attach the bow lines until ready to go. The engine MUST be fully raised any time the boat is lowered or raised on the lift. If the engine is left down, it will be under water and flooded anytime the bow is up (lifted) and the stern is still down. If the engine cannot be raised for some reason, leave the boat in the water and notify the Vice Commodore listed on the first page of the logbook. Do not raise the boat on the lift! Catalina 25 Systems and Procedures Page 5