Catalina 36

This American cruiser offers a spacious layout and rugged build quality, but what’s she like to sail? Duncan Kent reports.

Why did this American design remain in production for a quarter of a century? By avoiding the cost of retooling, Catalina could sell her for a lower price than newer designs from other builders, which made her very popular. But for that business model to work, you have to start off with a good boat – like this one. while she’s no racer, the Catalina 36 is a traditional cruising yacht design with a dependable, sea-kindly performance and an easy motion.

Performance

The 36 was never a particularly light boat and she was designed primarily for getting her crew from A to B safely and as comfortably as possible. As standard she has a quite modest sail area and this, together with nearly three tonnes of lead ballast, has the effect of keeping her stiff and upright in stronger winds, although she really needs more than a genoa to get her going quickly downwind in light airs.

Boats with the optional taller mast had another 50sq ft or so of sail area, which undoubtedly helped in lighter airs, but her classic cruiser-style deep-bellied hull obviously creates quite a bit more drag than a lightweight racer.

We had light airs on our test day, varying between 5-15 knots true, and the big spring tide was on the ebb. At first, with the wind under 10 knots she floundered around a little, but as soon as the wind reached 12 knots she started finding her groove.

The standard engine was the Kubotabased M35 (35hp) naturally-aspirated Universal/Westerbeke 4-cylinder fresh-water cooled diesel, which is robust and reliable, albeit a tad under-powered with the regular two-bladed fixed prop. Even with our three-blade propeller, we struggled somewhat against the fastebbing spring tide through Portsmouth Harbour, although generally she cruises happily at 6 knots, running at 2,200rpm.

At the helm