Replacing Catalina 34 Diesel Fuel Tank

Replacing our Diesel Fuel Tank

I repaired our fuel tank in 2017 using JB Weld Marine putty to cure a leak from the welded outboard lower edge of the tank, it has held to this day - Nov. 11th 2025 

This weekend after a day of light sailing, I found fuel on the Puppy Pad that we keep on the inside of the hull below the tank. Dang!

Looking deeper, there was fuel residue all down the inside of the hull and into the aft most bilge. Luckily it had not reached the level of the limber hole between the aft and middle bilge - so there was nothing to pump overboard .. Phew!

The tank is OEM from 1987, time to replace it.

Step 1: Drain the tank. I disconnected the fuel pipe from the output of the Facet Fuel pump and replaced it with a 24" piece of 3/8" hose the other end in a 5 gallon Jerry can ( I only had Gas Cans empty, so I tied a piece of string to the can handle to highlight that it was not Gasoline !! )

With the 'ignition' key on, I could turn the fuel pump on and off from inside the cabin by using the master engine control key on the cabin control panel.

It took about 20 minutes to empty the rest of the fuel from the tank. I filled the 1st 5 gallon tank, turned the pump off, swapped to the next 5 gallon tank and turned the pump back on. Total of about 6 gallons drained.

The tank is located at the foot of the aft berth behind the plywood bulkhead on the Port side. After pulling everything out of the garage ( our nickname for the aft berth ) it took only a few minutes to remove the dozen or so screws and pull out the bulkhead. Then disconnect the Fuel Fill hose, Fuel Vent hose, Fuel Supply hose ( had to cut that, just could not get the hose off of the connection ) , the Fuel Return hose and the Electrical connection for the Tank Sensor ( had to cut those too. Luckily I had anticipated that I might have to remove the tank in the future and had left some slack in the tank sensor wiring). Finally remove the two ground wires attached to the top ground strap. 

To remove the tank, there are 6 screws on the forward end of the tank that secure it to the shelf on which the tank sits.

With all that done, it's just a case of sliding the tank to starboard and into the aft berth. Once it's in the berth, then, standing at the entrance to the berth, the tank can be manhandled and placed on the galley counter ( over the sinks ), from there, it's just a case of moving it to the cabin steps and managing it onto the cockpit deck. The tank is not particularly heavy, but it is awkward.

With the tank at home, I got my tape measure out and verified the dimensions.

This drawing is an edit of the one provided by Catalina Direct. Note their drawing is not 'complete' I guess they don't want to provide all of the dimensions for sales reasons.

Catalina Direct have been a great resource for getting stuff done on Eximius, and they are always very helpful. That's particularly important with the recent loss of the Catalina Factory - at least, it looks like the factory is going away unless they can find someone to take it over - PLEASE - but note! Catalina Direct is not any part of Catalina Yachts. 

The option for buying the tank are challenging. The one from CD are a known replacement. It's very slightly smaller than our original tank. I have asked a couple of companies for a quote on making a replacement, waiting on a reply most likely tomorrow.

Meanwhile: With the tank out and the aft berth empty, I can do a few things.

• Clean up the tank support shelf
• Clean up the inside of the hull from the shelf area all the way down to the aft bilge. 
• Both of these require plenty of cleaning, degreasing, I may even get the bilge paint out, not necessary but would be nice.
• Clean up the inside of the under sink cupboard in the head.

The tank has certainly got a healthy growth of Diesel Bug, the new tank will be virgin clean but the supply hose is probably infected, so a new hose is in my future.

The Forward end of the old tank has a tab for screwing down to the support shelf but there is no tab on the aft end of the tank ( narrow end ) but the fuel fill hose is very rigid and should prevent the tank moving but I think I'll add a hold down strap all the same.

While at it, I'll do some general cleaning hopefully to reduce the diesel smell in the cabin.

Stay tuned.

See you on the water - when the new tank is installed.

Paul

Crew training

Crew training aboard Eximius

After owning Eximius for 10 years, we finally got to have crew aboard for a local Ocean race and what a difference! 

We have had crew aboard for a 40nm trip, but it was literally a straight line cruise from Hillsboro Inlet to Lake Worth Inlet, so just the three of us: Myself, Peggy and one crew.

On our last race, we had two crew and what a difference that made. The day was Stormy, Wet and wild but the two 'girls' were still smiling when we got back to the dock despite not finishing the race. 

Luckily, they both wanted to come out with us again, that's a good sign, and they are this weekend. But also, our sailing club has a lot of potential crew to call upon. I happen to manage the club's website ( https://www.hisc.org ) and have put a 'Crew Pool' system in place where club members can volunteer to be crew on the boats that skippers own.

However, the question often arises is 'But what experience do they have' and that is a good question. I'm looking to see how we can establish that criteria for each wanna-be crew, it's a challenge. 

So, one thing I'm considering:- What are the benefits of training regular Crew. 

We seem to be a decent skipper and admiral, my 60years of sailing experience and quite a bit of education ( Navy as well as ASA 101 ) so I believe that we could offer crew some useful sailing education.

Just like 'I'm not a Bank', I'm also not a 'Free Sailing Classes provider' but would not want to charge crew for 'training'.  However, having better educated crew is a benefit to all onboard.

Ok, having convinced myself that it would be worth my time to offer some sailing education, now I need to figure out what to offer.

Let me say from the outset - I would / will suggest the ASA courses but many of our club members have done at least the ASA 101, some a lot more, obviously, this subject is not aimed at those 'crew' that do have experience - in their case, it's not so much training but in education about how we run our ship.  A frequent phrase we used in the Royal Navy was 'Different Ships - Different Cap Tallies - that refers to the ships name tally that junior sailors have on their caps, those Tallies change when you change ships - so to do the ships procedures.

For the less experienced crew, there are some basics. A good friend of mine told me that when you get a new crew, educate them on one job and help them get good at that job. I like that idea.

BUT - that's a long slow process, and going out  for a sail with the simple goal of practicing a particular process, such as 'Putting in a Reef' can get crew up to speed much more quickly.

I did have the opportunity to educate a bunch of our club members on correct Radio Procedure ( My Ship ) and have the documentation that I used. It would be easy for me to type up some other processes ( such as Reefing ) and take the crew out for practice ( Crew Training ) 

You may have ideas on this and I sure would like to hear about them, so go ahead and comment on this subject - I'll toss out any crazy comments, no offense, but so far my blog has had over 500,000 views and I delete junk comments. I really do look forward to your input.

See you on the water - hopefully with crew.

Paul

Time to leave the dock

 When is the time to leave the dock?

Our new dock is awesome, just 20+ minutes from home, an extremely nice location and a great dock-lord. And it's only 55 mins from the Ocean and 3 bridges ( Compared to our original dock which was about 90 mins from the ocean five bridges, one of them the main line railroad bridge for the Brightline train system).

Now we can participate in a lot more of our sailing club events, we have been in more club regattas and cruises in the past 12 months than we had for several years at the old dock. This is a big deal and we're very grateful to the home owner.

We have to calculate the time to leave the dock in order to get to the club races start line. Leaving the dock at the wrong time can cause us to wait an additional 30 minutes in order to get into sync with the bridge opening times.  If we have crew onboard, and yes we have finally managed that, then we have to inform them of the dock departure time.

So.... I created a simple spreadsheet to show what times we need to leave the dock in order to get to the Ocean side Start line. It's simple: Just determine what time to arrive at the start line and then look for the dock departure time.

Thanks Carol for pointing out my early morning error - just a reminder to don't make decisions before my morning Coffee.

Mainsail Reefing line markings

Marking the Mainsail Reefing Lines

We had crew aboard last weekend, so I was not doing all of the work when we needed to reef, that was when I realized that we need to improve the reefing process on Eximius.

Just to recap, here's the process of adding a reef to the Mainsail.

• Head up to close hauled
• Haul in on the Topping lift to prevent the boom dropping when...
• Lower the main halyard to bring the head of the sail down just below the next reefing point
• Haul in the next reefing point downhaul to tighten the luff
• Haul in on the Main halyard to tension the luff, now the main is currently raised to that reef.
• Haul in on the next reefing point outhaul to set the Clew of the sail
• Ease the Topping lift to set the leach of the mainsail
• Reef the Jib/Genoa as needed to balance the boat.
• Head back onto course

That's how we should add a reef to the mainsail.

The problem arises when having to check the position of the main halyard and the two sets of reefing lines. Glancing up from the cockpit in nasty weather is awkward. Hence the need to mark the lines for each reefing point.

My plan is to mark the Main Halyard, the #1 Reef downhaul & the #1 Outhaul as well as the #2 Reef Downhaul & the #2 Reef Outhaul

I want the markings to be easily seen from the cockpit and obvious.

Here's my plan. I'll mark the 5 lines in each position "Full Main", "1st Reef", "2nd Reef" using Red whipping line.

Each marking will comprise of 2 or 3 bands.

For the Full main, the bands will be 1" wide whippings

For the 1st Reef, the bands will be one narrow band and the second band will be 1" wide whippings

For the 2nd Reef, the bands will be two narrow bands and the second band will be 1" wide whippings

With these markings in place, it should be easy to tell when the lines are in the correct position both when adding a reef or taking a reef out.

We'll see how that works out.

Any comments? Do you mark your reefing lines and if so, what method do you use?

See you on the water, reefed or not.

Paul

Commodores Cup 2025

 That sail was a Blast

Champagne Sailing at it's best, 5-8' seas, Ongoing Storm, Boat failures - but we had a blast!

Let's get the Boat failures out of the way.

When putting in the 2nd reef, I screwed up. When I loosened the lazy jacks with the intent of tidying up the sail shape after dropping the mainsail for the 2nd reef, I did not secure the bitter end of the port side Lazy Jack halyard. Later it ran out of the mast block and wrapped itself around the port Gib sheet, a big bundle of Dhoby hitches. The Genoa furling line jambed in the drum. That was probably due to the furling line not being taught enough to force the line to lay neatly inside the furler. I need to replace the furling line as it should be about 10' longer so that it's easier to manage when furling and unfurling the genoa.

Ok, that's it, considering the weather, easily solved issues:

• Secure the ends of the Lazy Jack halyards
• Keep the tension on the furling line when unfurling the Genoa
• Mark the reefing points on the Main Halyard and all 4 Reefing lines.

Thursday morning, a fellow member of the HISC assisted me climbing the mast to re-thread the Lazy Jack line, I plan to assist him when he has to scale his mast for the first time next week. Thanks Jim.

Friday morning I fixed the Lazy Jack lines, with stopper knots that prevent the line leaving the cleats. I hoisted the sail bag so that water drains out. All of the running rigging looks good, I inspected the shrouds and the attachments at the mast, all look good, however, my plan it to replace the standing rigging this winter. 

I also measured the Genoa Furling line and purchased 80' of StaSetX 1/4" Red & White line from the local marine store ( WM ) ready to install next week. The new line should have a significant tail on it so that it's easier to handle at the cockpit end.

Now for the fun part.

Our first crew for a race arrived early at the boat so were were able to leave at 8:55am to make the 9am Atlantic Bridge opening. Carol & Gail brought their own lifejackets, we had lunch, snacks and water/juice drinks in the cooler. Peggy & I had stopped by Publix on the way to the boat to pick up some Sandwiches and Fruit & Crackers, we would not starve.

The wind was expected to pipe up around noon. NOAA had forecast 10-14 knots of wind, so we set the 1st reef in the mainsail. Motoring up towards the start line we pinged the Port & Stbd pins of the line. The outer mark was a committee boat and the inner mark was a swim buoy. Our Starting line program was running on our Garmin Chart Plotter. 

Our start was the last of 3, first warning was at 10:55 for an 11:00 start, second warning was at 11:00 for an 11:05 start and our warning was at 11:05 for the 11:10 start. We nailed it, crossing line within 20 seconds of the gun. It was an eventful start for the other fleets but I'll leave them to write up their story, it was definitely eventful.

Even with the 1st reef, we flew down towards the first mark which was to be somewhere East of the Commercial Peer. The race committee said "The last known position of the South Mark was Somewhere East of the Commercial Peer", probably because we have had to chase that mark in some pervious races due to it not holding it's anchored position so well. Oh Well.

The night before, Peggy & I had reviewed the potential race courses and had figured that if it was a Southerly marked course, then the mark would probably be in the first deep water East of the Peer. We nailed that too!

Ok, back to the sailing. So we were flying down and holding our own, but the leading boats seemed to be heading quite close to shore compared to us. I should have held to my plan, instead I doubted my own plan and we gybed to head closer to shore and had to head back SE to where the mark was, pretty close to where we had put the mark in our plotter.

As expected, the wind was piping up, we were seeing steady 14knots of wind, gusting to 17 and heading up the scale. So we decided to put in a second reef once we had rounded the South Mark, which we did nicely. The wind had backed so we rounded the mark and then turned to 80ºm and worked at putting in the 2nd reef.

Carol, soaked but smiling.

The new crew had been great, Wet! Worked but still smiling. We plowed along nicely but then I screwed up. 

The process of putting in a reef on Eximius is:-

• Tighten the Topping Lift to stop the Boom from falling
• Lower the Mainsail to just below the next reef point
• Tighten the next Downhaul reef line
• Tighten the next Outhaul Reef line
• Raise the Main to the next reef point
• Ease the topping lift to improve the sail shape.

Easy! Unless someone ( me ) had screwed up  earlier. I had not secured the ends of the Lazy Jack lines and the Port side line had exited the mast block above the spreaders and then had tangled around the stbd lazy jack lines and the port side genoa sheet. Concerned about that, I had followed the reefing process but unable to get the sail down to the 2nd reefing point and unable to raise the sail back up. Now we had a wind bag instead of a sail! And the wind was now exceeding 22knots. Oh! When I tried to reef in the Genoa, the furling line became locked around the drum and so we could not reef the genoa.

At this point we basically had a wind bag for a mainsail and the genoa was fully deployed, this made controlling the boat a lot of fun.

The crew were still smiling.

Three times I went forward to try and release the lock in the furling drum but  the wind was just too strong. I made the decision that we should alert the race committee that we were starting our engine and bowing out of the race. Then we turned for the inlet.

For the next half hour, we fought the weather, waves and the squally conditions and did not make progress North, our intent was to anchor of the Hillsboro Beach till the weather dropped and then motor into the inlet, however, the timing was not good, Low tide was at 2:30pm, the waves were over 5' and the depths in the inlet were less than 6' in places and were were having sail issues that meant going in the inlet was risky. So I decided we should head south to Port Everglades and take the ICW north to our dock.

During all of this, we broke out the Lunch sandwiches and multiple rounds of hydration, we started to dry off too.  

It was about a 2 hour motor to PE, but enroute I was able to calm the mainsail and tide the sail into the lazy jack bag ( Cradle Cover ) and I was able to untangle the Genoa furler and get it fully furled.

It was lumpy and bumpy all the way until we were inside of the breakers of the Port Everglades Inlet. Of course, a giant Cruise Ship was heading out as we came in, but timing worked out and we had no issues. 

In very familiar waters for Peggy & I, we turned North on the ICW, we navigated under the 17th Street Causeway bridge, around the East bend and then North again up to Los Olas Blvd Bridge, we had to wait 25minutes but plenty of room, very little traffic. Up throttle and head to Sunrise Bridge, Oakland Park Blvd Bridge and finally Commercial Blvd Bridge. 

All of us were pretty tired but we got to the dock even if we did have to try it twice. 

I suggested to Carol & Gail that they didn't need to hang around, we were planning on securing the boat and heading home before it got dark. I think we got home around 6:15pm  Left over sandwiches for dinner and then an early night.

This was the most fun I had on the boat in a long while, self inflicted issues but we overcame them, everyone was smiling and the crew both said they would do it again. I hope they do. It was a great day.

See you on the water.

Paul

Intermittent Anchor Light

Fixing our Intermittent Anchor Light

On a recent 160nm trip with four nights at anchor, we noticed our anchor light was out. It's not a complex system. On/Off Switch (Circuit Breaker ) on the Electrical Panel, Wires inside the Mast and LED Anchor light mounted on a bracket at the Mast head.

Testing:

Using a digital AVO I checked the power at the Breaker - It was good and solid, no wiggly switch!

While Peggy watched the Mast head, I 'wiggled' the wire joint at the base of the mast - Yep! On and Off while wiggling ( the wires, not me or Peggy ) So I need to rework the joints of the wires at the base of the mast.

According to the Catalina's Owner's Manual ( Pg. 30 ) There is a 4 wire cable for the Mast Ground, Anchor Light, Deck Light and Steaming Light.

In practice there is also a Coaxial Wire ( Masthead VHF Antenna) and a NEMA 2000 Drop wire ( Masthead Wind Transducer )

At present, that 4 wire cable is a mess of electrical tape and probably soldered butt joints - I'll cut them open and rewire them as follows.

In practice, that will look something like this.

Sketch of Bilge area just in front of the mast.

I'm planning on mounting the Terminal block with Thickened Epoxy in a position that the screws are accessible from the top. Might have to put it on the Port side if the existing cable is not long enough.

Plan is to do this on Monday, same day that we'll work on removing the old head toilet and install a new one.

Well, it's done, working but didn't work out as expected.

My sketch shows the terminal block neatly affixed to the side of the bilge, turned out that's almost impossible! The access to that bilge area is very small and getting to the block if it is installed there is equally nearly impossible.  Also, the wire from the block to the electrical control panel is too short to reach down to that point.

The other issue ( non issue ) is that the wires from the mast are a 2 pair and 3 pair . The black wire in both are 'common'.

This is what I started with. those joints are soldered twisted wires covered with Liquid rubber and then two layers of electrical tape.

You can see the 4 wire brown sheathed cable in the lower right hand ( Port side ) of the picture.

With some careful pulling, I was able to extend the brown sheathed cable out another 1.5" but still not enough to be able to connect to the terminal block if it was secured to the side of the bilge and there would be no reasonably easy way to get a screwdriver in there to secure the wire terminals.

I elected to have the terminal float and secured by a zip tie.

First task was to document the wire connections.

4 Wire: 

Red - White stripe to Red Two Wire

Red - Green Stripe to Black Common two and three wire

Red - Black Strip to White Three Wire

Red - Solid to Green Three wire

Using a knife I peeled back the wrapping and then cut the wires close to the solder joints

Cut the outer covering of the Two and Three wire cables so that they were all the same length.

Stripped the wire ends for Crimped Ring Terminals

After shrinking the terminal covers, it all went together really easy.

I'm anticipating pulling the mast in December to do a few jobs on the mast and to replace the standing rigging.

Also cleaned up the sheaths of the two cables, just had to wipe them down with a Clorox wipe.

I put the terminal block cover on and secure it to with a couple of small zip ties.

Next: Test it!

Peggy operated the switches while I rushed around the boat on and off the dock to check the lights were working. 

Anchor Light 👍 

Steaming Light 👍 

Deck Light 👍 

Running Lights 👍  ( Tested but not part of the Mast wiring )

So all deck and Nav lights are working

With the wiring checked out, I secured the terminal block and the 2 & 3 wire cables to the P clip that is under that screw in the top left corner of the picture.

Yes, I cleaned up the deck support and the bilge before closing it up and re-testing - all's good.

Cross this one off the list and updated the Service history.

See you on the water.

Paul

Fixing the Crapper

Replacing the Toilet

We keep the bathroom as clean as possible, you never know when a visitor has to 'go', so our toilet is clean, but it leaks, and it does not matter how clean it is if it leaks!

We replaced the discharge hose from the Toilet to the Holding tank, but we keep getting a small amount of fluid on the floor in the head, pretty sure it's from the toilet, the cost of the bits to service the old unit, along with the work, just doesn't make sense when a new unit is less than $200 from Defender.

So we are now the proud owners of a brand new Jabsco Twist 'n' Lock Manual Toilet - 29090-5000. Ordered on September 1st and arrived on September 5th. I checked the condition of the product before taking it down to the boat as I had read that some recipients had reported damage to the toilet. This was very well packaged and the box showed no signs of external damage - well done UPS.

In theory, the hole pattern for the base should exactly match the old unit's so that should make it an easy task.

We flush the toilet with Fresh water - if you have seen inside the holding tank after the toilet has been flushed with salt water for a few years you'll understand why.

So I'll blank off the hose port on the back of the pump assembly.

Looking at the pic above, i can see that the Discharge port on the base of the pump assembly is pointing upwards but on the boat, the port is pointing to the right ( towards the bow ), however, checking the new toilet, that discharge port looks to be able to position in three directions by just removing the 3 screws, pulling the port off, rotating it and reassembling.   Fingers crossed!

I'll apply a thin film of Butyl tape to the underside of the base just to ensure there's no way for any liquids to seep under the base should there ever be a leak.

OK, as always, that's the plan.

Well that went really well.

Turns out that the Toilet was only secured by 3 lag bolts, the back left hand lag bolt was missing and when I removed the Toilet, that screw had previously broken off and I could see the old screw shaft had been leveled off so that it did not protrude. Oh, well, one less lag bolt to worry about.

The output port is not triangular, it's circular, so that means the port can be rotated a full 360º just by easing two screws accessible from the front of the toilet (one can be seen in the picture above )

The whole job would have taken about 10 minutes had I not left my socket set at home. Most of the time was spent unscrewing the lag bolts in the very limited area behind the toilet.

I used the 'old' toilet seat, it was only replaced comparatively recently.

All done with enough time to do the mast wiring fix for the Anchor light before heading home. 

A good day.

See you on the water.