Catalina 355 Photo
Consider that when you step down the companionway of the Catalina 355 in the dark, the first thing your hand finds is a secure post. And that if your hand follows that post down, the next item it comes to is the switch that illuminates the saloon (view the full gallery here).
Consider that the next time you go looking in a locker for a gallon jug of water or a fuel filter or whipping twine aboard the new 355, you won’t first have to move a single cushion or hatchboard out of the way.
Consider that this 35-footer comes with a robust optional rubstrake to protect the topsides against real-life incidents and that the toerail has been designed to be removed and rebedded several years or even owners from now without compromising the watertight integrity of the hull/deck joint. Consider, too, that this 35-footer offers a sprit for a gennaker alongside one of the most well-thought-out anchoring systems we judges for the 2011 Boat of the Year contest inspected in this year’s entire fleet of new boats, including many billed as all-oceans voyagers.
Gerry Douglas is Catalina’s lead designer, and he’s considered all these things, as well as plenty of others. As you look closely through the new 355, or through other recent Catalinas, you begin to realize that Douglas isn’t merely a good engineer; he’s also developed a production team that works with consistent consideration for the people who’ll sail and inhabit his boats, even two, three, or four owners down the line. It’s not too much to say that good design is a moral as well as a commercial choice, and Catalina is unique among high-volume boatbuilders in the degree to which its chief executives balance the tensions of market forces, cost decisions, customer feedback, and product design.
In his design brief, Douglas describes the 355 as a coastal-cruising boat for owners with ambitions and aspirations. “I thought that was a perfect description of this boat,” said BOTY judge and longtime voyager Beth Leonard, “because it functions extremely well as a weekender, but it also does a lot of things better than much larger, full-out cruising boats.”
We sailed the 355 in about 10 knots on Chesapeake Bay last fall, making just over 5 knots into the wind and tacking through 100 degrees. Cracking off 30 degrees kicked the speed up to 5.6 knots. In terms of pure sailing, the Catalina 355 wasn’t the top performer in this year’s category of boats between 35 and 40 feet; on that criterion alone, Hanse and Dufour shone brighter. The 355 we sailed had what former BOTY judge Bill Lee called “the big three” performance-sappers from the options list: a roller-furling main, a fixed three-blade propeller, and a 4-foot-6-inch shoal-draft keel. For owners who don’t sail most often on Chesapeake Bay, along Florida’s west coast, or in other notoriously shallow cruising grounds, a deep-draft keel of 6 feet 8 inches is available. As for the furling main, it should be noted that Douglas figured out a long time ago that most of his customers were choosing that option, so he added sail area back into the rig to compensate for the lost roach and draft that one inevitably trades for the convenience in setting that sail.
On the topics of convenience and general ergonomics, the deck layout, cockpit layout, and sailhandling controls drew kudos from all the BOTY judges. Once again, Douglas has considered his customers: Recognizing that many people move up the line from smaller Catalinas into larger ones, he’s taken care to arrange all the running rigging in a similar system of cordage colors and sheet-stopper organization. The owner moving from this boat to a 455 several years hence will immediately understand the strings.
Under the power of a 29-horsepower Yanmar diesel with a conventional propeller shaft, the 355 cruised at 6.5 knots and topped out at 7.1 knots; with sound readings of 93 decibels and 99 decibels, respectively, the boat was near the noisier end of this year’s Boat of the Year fleet.
Where this Catalina truly shines is in the integration, detail by detail, throughout the boat. “In terms of workmanship,” said BOTY judge and systems guru Ed Sherman, “they’ve mastered it. They’ve mastered the production line. In my view, their attention to detail is unsurpassed in this price category.”
The construction of the 355 is consistent with other recent Catalinas: hand-laid fiberglass with vinylester resin and isophthalic gelcoat in the hull; in the deck, fiberglass and polyester resin around a balsa core. Structurally, the boat is composed of five major parts: hull, deck, structural grid, interior liner, and deck liner. The key here is that all structural loads are taken directly to the structural grid and, ultimately, the hull; the furniture throughout the interior is completely isolated from the dynamic loads delivered by the rig and keel while under way.
“This boat,” said Leonard, “could do just about anything—from family weekend fun, maybe a little bit of round-the-buoys racing, but more likely some really long-distance cruising. It’s a boat that’s going to cross all those categories.”
For these and other reasons, my colleagues and I on the 2011 BOTY judging panel unanimously deemed the Catalina 355 as the 2011 Domestic Boat of the Year.
Tim Murphy, a Cruising World editor at large and 2011 Boat of the Year judge, is based in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
Specs
LOA 35′ 5″ (10.76 m.)
LWL 30′ 2″ (9.17 m.)
Beam 12′ 0″ (3.65 m.)
Draft (shoal) 4′ 6″ (1.37 m.)
(deep) 6′ 8″ (2.2 m.)
Sail Area 669 sq. ft. (62 sq. m.)
(135% genoa)
Ballast (shoal) 6,200lb. (2,808 kg.)
(deep) 5,200 lb. (2,355 kg.)
Displacement (shoal) 14,800lb. (6,704 kg.)
(deep) 13,800 lb. (6,251 kg.)
Ballast/D (shoal/deep) .41/.38
D/L (shoal/deep) 241/224
SA/D (shoal/deep) 17.73/18.57
Water 101 gal. (382 l.)
Fuel 30 gal. (114 l.)
Holding 27 gal. (102 l.)
Mast Height 54′ 5″ (16.54 m.)
Engine 29-hp. Yanmar (conventional shaft)
Designer Gerry Douglas
Sailaway Price $205,000
Catalina Yachts
(727) 544-6681
www.CatalinaYachts.com
