Catalina 350 International Association

I have had the experience of all the little chains that supposedly are deisgned to stop the various filler caps (diesel, water forward and aft, and waste) from falling in the drink when you unscrew them. Every one of them has rusted through and as such are useless and I live in fear of one of my caps disapearing into the briny if I handle it carelessly. They seem to be very poor quality chains and rusted out very early in the life of the boat. Anyone got a solution. I think Catalina should replace them, and also make sure they put quality material in this small, but important area of the boat.


Tom
Whisper II
# 278
Sydney Australia

Good question Tom, one of my chains broke the same week I took delivery. I have been trying to figure out how they get the chains attached in the pipe. Every time I speak to the dealer about other issues, I forget about this one until I go to fill up a tank.

I also experienced premature failure of all the deck fill chains. My dealer is out of business so I'm on my own. I think that the entire deck fill is going to have to be removed in order to attach a replacement. Perko makes a stainless braided wire for this purpose. It's on the To Do list but won't be a quick project.

Most of the chains on my filler caps are also rusted through leaving the caps vulnerable to going overboard

C350 #229

My chains have suffered the same problem, and it does worry you that one of your caps is going to go over the side. I'll ask my dealer and let you know what he says. Gerry Douglas, the 350's designer, is on my dock. I'll ask him too the next time I see him.

Jerry Nielsen
Wind*Rose, hull #266

My chain, at my first refuelling got pinched and broke. Others have corroded but not broke.

When i last checked, and it has been a while, it looked like u could replace the fuel chain by removing the fuel hose from refill spout, accessing it from the port stern locker... if u are of modest girth. I assume, but not sure, that would be easier than removing a bedded fuel spout from the deck, which would still have to removed from the fuel hose by loosening the clamps from below. At the time, i just decided to keep an extra fuel cap in case mine was lost.

A dock-mate, not a Catalina owner, said he had one of those chains break and it eventually got sucked up into his fuel line. I do not know if we have screens on our fuel lines or not, but that's why i want to eventually remove the what remains of the broken chain on my boat.

Maybe someone else has better solution.

Allsail
C-350 #326

I have lost my water fill chain to corrosion. The same thing happened on my C310. It is pretty clear that the wrong material was used. I try to be very careful with all the filler caps because I know the chains will all fail so the cap need to be treated with kid gloves. I have never reported the problem to the dealer or Catalina but I agree that the factory should repair them because a loss of a cap at the wrong time, could be a catastrophe in terms of contamination to fuel or water tanks.
Tim
#332

This seems to be a very common problem. How do we go about letting Catalina know of same, and seeking an answer/solution/compensation for having to fix it ourselves. It smacks of very poor quality control on a small but important matter, if you lose one of these caps overboard it could be a serious issue at sea. One would imagine that with the long period of manufacturing Catalina would have got this just right, but my recollection is that one of my chains was done for about 6 months after I got the boat, and as I said in my initial message, ALL of them have now failed (3 years on), and I live in fear of losing a cap. Not a good look Catalina. [/b]

Today during fueling my diesel cap when over board. Broken rusted chain. Should have known that was going to happen and take the chain of the cap. Anyway I did not do that.
Does West Marine have these caps or do we need to go thru Catalina for a replacement?
Anybody else ordered a new cap? Please share info.
I am temporarily using a water cap.
Thank you

Hans,

There was a discussion recently on the C34 web site about this problem. - http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4761.0.html
It appears that if you only want to replace the cap, the plastic ones from Catalina Direct are your best bet. Aparently the threads are not standard and most "off the shelf" replacement caps won't fit. The C34 message gives several alternatives.

Good luck.

Thank you Ken ! As always you are right there with a solution.

West Marine makes a generic cap that will fit - I replaced one of my water caps this summer that went overboard due to chain failure. Since then I have removed all the chains so I am not tempted to rely on them. It's not if they will break - but when. None of my previous boats had the chain - you tend to be a lot more careful when you know there is no tether for your cap!
Lyle
"Serenity"
Hull #363

Good point about the chains Lyle. I was going to do that. I will put the plastic cap on the water tank in the anchor locker and swithed the water cap to the diesel.
Will go by West Marina this week and pick up 2 of the plastic caps.