WOULD THE POOBAH DO
BAJA HA-HA XXXI WITH A CATALINA 27?
No. But that's just me, and because I'm older than I used to be, and a pretty big guy.
Some people are under the impression that you need a large and expensive boat, equipped with an entire West Marine store, to safely do a Baja Ha-Ha. Experience has shown that's not necessarily the case.
While the nominal Ha-Ha rule is that a boat needs to be designed, built, and maintained for offshore sailing, and at least 27 feet in length, the Poobah has given special dispensation to a number of very experienced sailors with smaller boats. Examples include a Cal 24, a Pacific Seacraft 20, and in the most extreme case, a 17-footer. The latter owner actually did two Ha-Ha's.
If the Poobah was younger and maybe only 6 feet tall, he'd be happy to do a Ha-Ha in something like a Catalina 27. In fact, here's a report from several years ago from Steve and Charlotte Baker, who did just that.
“Having become dissatisfied with our suburban Santa Rosa lives, in 2009 we bought Willful Simplicity, an outboard-powered 1973 Catalina 27. The only person who encouraged us was Richard Spindler, the Poobah of the Ha-Ha. Had we listened to the naysayers rather than Richard, we would have missed out on the nine best years of our lives."
“We started our new life with 135 other boats in the 2009 Baja Ha-Ha, which is the 750-mile cruiser rally from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. That Ha-Ha is generally considered to have been the windiest of the 24 Ha-Ha’s as of that date. We and our Catalina 27 Willful Simplicity didn’t have any problems."
"Many people told us we couldn’t enjoy Mexico with our ‘mini-cruiser.’ They were wrong. We saw many beautiful places and enjoyed countless great anchorages on the way down to Cabo and up into the Sea of Cortez. But the absolute best part of our cruising was meeting the locals, especially the children, and coming to appreciate their natural way of life. We have become better people for what we’ve learned from the people of Baja."
" For nine years, our homeport was more or less the tiny fishing village of San Evaristo, a popular anchorage about 50 miles north of La Paz by water. And for many of those years, we lived aboard on the hook.”
The Poobah would like to say that he doesn't recall “encouraging” the Bakers, just not discouraging them.
Just for kicks, the Poobah went to Craig's List in San Diego to see what kind of 'big bang for the buck' boats might be available. He was shocked. Here are some examples:
- Willard 30 with Perkins diesel and newish sails, $8,900.
- Several Catalina 30s for under $9,000, some with outboards.
- One Catalina 30 for $3,000! Catalina 30s are spacious boats.
- Cal 27, $5,000, electric motor.
- C&C 35, a great design, for $9,000.
- Ranger 33, $5,000. Rangers were stoutly built boats.
- Cheoy Lee 28, $4,000.
- Islander 36, a San Francisco Bay classic, $14,000.
All these came up in just the first few pages of listings. There were many more.
Why so cheap? The market for these very capable but older designs is incredibly soft to non-existent. Many were owned by folks who've now grown too old to sail and will do almost anything to get to stop paying for slip fees and insurance. It's not uncommon to see boats offered for free.
Remembering that a free boat can be the most expensive boat in the world, you don't want to get anything that needs a lot of work. You need to be very careful. But buying in San Diego is often a good idea, because boats down there aren't subject to the abuse boats typically get on windy San Francisco Bay. They are often in remarkably good shape.
I don't want to give anyone the impression that more expensive modern boats don't typically offer much more space and conveniences. But if properly checked out, the classics from the '70s and '80s are all a younger sailor might need.
Ha-Ha XXXI starts on November 3rd. Entries will be accepted at noon on May 9.
An astonishing 6,400 Catalina 30s were built.
A good run for most sailboats of that era was under 100.
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Ranger 33s have a reputation for being very well built.
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The Willard 30 is a
spacious and
very seaworthy design.
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