Dang Bess, turns out you guys had ten foot itus. Good luck in your pursuit.
The Californians are very solid sturdy boats. AS with any boat it's the systems you need to pay attention to but I have had mine 3 years and I have had no surprises. I have Detroit 6-71 Ti's and they are extremely fuel efficient for DD's. At 8-9 kts I'm burning about 7 gph and at 14 kts only about 18 gph and that is with the generator 15 KW running. I know that sounds like a lot to a lot of members here, but I was extremely surprised after taking delivery on mine. I was thinking like 15 and 30 gph.
I was more careful after I bought the spares. As you can see from Capt. Jon's picture the shafts are pretty long and one piece. I think that I paid 2 grand for used props.
I carried them in the engine room laying flat...one on top of the other in the step down space just in front of the battery boxes and made a new plywood floor to put on top of them. I also put a short piece of PVC pipe in the holes to keep them from moving around.
Don't let this issue scare you away from a fantastic boat. Many a day I wish that I had mine back.
One modification that I had made was a real door to replace the slider into the main salon. I think a lot of owners have done this. Whoever dreamed up the slider must have been drinking.
The freeboard is taller than me! How the heck am I supposed to tend lines and be first mate? on our 35' I could just jump to the dock and tie us up......that's not gonna happen on this boat.