Choosing the Perfect boat.

How did we decide on the Catalina 42. After 20 years of boating, we had a good idea of what we would need if we were to live on a boat for months.  To make sure we were right, we went on everything we could find while we visited Annapolis, MD. We toured canoe sterned blue water boats, center cockpit yachts, with 36 as our minimum, and 42 as our maximum, we spent a whole day with a great broker at Annapolis Yacht Sales. The last  thing we saw was a tricked out Catalina 42 with two cabins. It was spacious, had 8 hatches and about 10 ports we could open for a breeze in the tropical sun of the Bahamas and Virgin Islands. The kitchen was more than adequate with lots of storage.

  The pullman berth was long enough for the two of us and there was lots of storage in our cabin. There was an extra cabin and head for guests, but not the wasted space of a third cabin. Plenty of headroom for my 6'2" frame was a necessity. Oh, and she sails fast though she needs a cruising chute to go down wind. Nothing like being on a slow boat for a guy who spent a lot of time in race boats. Like many sailors, I spend all my time challenging myself to get the most from the boat. The master stateroom and head in the bow would be quiet at the dock where most modern sugar scoop shaped boats can make an annoying amount of noise as waves slap under the transom. The head was spacious with a great shower and separate cabinets for both of us to store toiletries in. She was great, she was just so dirty as she had set for 2 or 3 years.  It was hard to see the diamond in the rough through all the mold and dirt. It is hard to tour  a boat that was mothballed. Literally, we had to remove buckets of moth balls which made the inside of the boat so foul we had to open all the windows to be able to stay inside. The smell stayed for 2 summers.

The walk through transom leads to a huge cockpit has held 14 people for parties. Getting around is easy, though it is a challenge to dodge the permanent table in the cockpit while tacking.  The sails, lines and most of the gear was shot after years on the ocean and the layers of dust in the yard. We bought the bones of a great boat and have put a lot into it. It took Merri and I a full week to clean the boat. It required a full day in every cabin and large space.  It was very stock but the broker managed to convince us that being a '98, all the systems would need to be replaced soon so we could buy her for less and add what we wanted. 

She is still not perfect for living aboard, but we have a long list of upgrades to do that seems to never get shorter, though it changes in contents. Davits and an autopilot are going to be coming soon. I hope I can write about how well this boat works when I retire and sail her to the Bahamas. 

Dreaming of Living Aboard

by Doug Purdy

Ever since 2001 when my wife and I spent 7 weeks sailing to Nantucket from Lake Champlain we have talked about retiring and living aboard. We made the trip on a 30' Catalina along with our two children. It was wonderful. It was probably the best summer of my life so far as I spent so much time so close with my family and able to show my daughters so many new things. Every day was a new adventure and we didn't experience the usual boredom that comes with sailing for a couple weeks on Lake Champlain. We missed sailing the lake with it's great breezes, deep fresh water and hundreds of miles of coastline, but we had seen it all so many times before.

We found the perfect boat to live aboard for extended cruises during our search one summer in 2010.  My Catalina 30 sold the first day it hit the Internet after 20 years of TLC by a shop teacher, it had been refurbished and tricked out as much as possible. It was however still only 30 feet long.  Our dream boat became a Catalina 42 MKII. SuperEllen was renamed Purdy Suite and after over a month of 12 hour days she had been restored to something I felt safe in. A new bottom being one of the bigger projects. Here she is after a new set of canvas.

We sailed out of Scituate Harbor, MA on August 13th and had the most exciting sail I can remember down the coast to the Cape Cod Canal. Great winds and phenomenal speeds were the gifts of the Atlantic that day. We had never sailed a 42 with it's long waterline and mass that was double what my 30' boat had.  The mast seemed to go on forever when I looked up. We roared through the canal at over 10 knots over the ground as the current carried us toward Long Island Sound. Just as we got to the train bridge over the canal, it closed. We turned and motored against the current for 45 minutes at 5 knots making zero over the ground while waiting for the train.

We had a great sail the next day to Point Judith but arrived late and motored in at near low tide in the dark with two charting programs. We made it in a dropped the anchor in 7 feet of water. I heard it hit the bottom, in fact, I could see it down there as we backed up. We woke early and motored out on the high tide which was much more comfortable. It never occurred to us to use the radar to find the buoys and aid in our navigation. We made it with a spotlight and two charting GPS systems.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and incorporated mostly motoring which our new boat handled with gusto. The Catalina 30 was under powered with it's 11 horse diesel but the 42 had a 52 horse Yanmar and could really move. We ignored the tide and motored into NY Harbor and tried to get a mooring at 79th Street Moorings. We were informed that our boat was too big!  It is almost dark, what do we do now? Well, we motored past the moorings and dropped the hook. It was a little scary anchoring in a few knots of current that I knew would change directions later tonight. I set the alarm for the slack tide and got up and sat in the cockpit while the boat did a 180. The rest of our trip was uneventful as we motored up the Hudson River back through the Champlain Canal  to Lake Champlain.