Chris Craft 426 Catalina

[rdalgo]

I've been looking for a trawler for several years and about ready to purchase. Just came across a few Chris Craft 426 Catalinas with Cat 3208 engines and while not a trawler this boat seems to check all the boxes for us.
Anyone have any experience or advice on this model?

 

[rslifkin]

If I remember correctly, the 426 is one of the Uniflite derived Chris Crafts from after Chris Craft bought the remains of bankrupt Uniflite. In general they're considered good boats from what I know, although I don't have too much specific info about the 426. After digging up a picture of one out of the water I can't see any reason why it wouldn't make a decent trawler substitute and run acceptably at trawler speeds (with the caveat that certain weather conditions may force a speed increase). It won't necessarily have the best tracking at low speeds and will likely be poor in following seas until you speed up though, as the entry looks fairly fine, there's no significant keel and the rudders aren't huge.

 

[Comodave]

Welcome aboard. I agree with the above. There are a lot of threads here about 3208s. Good luck.

 

[Slowmo]

As others say Chirs Craft purchased Uniflite. The model is the old Uniflite 42 DC. Uniflites were considered excellent boats, they were more nicely finished than Chris Crafts of the era. However it was discovered that the fire retardant resin Uniflite used was hydroscopic and promoted blisters. I do not know if Chris moved back to conventional resin, if so that would have resolved most of the problem. I would make sure the boat is checked for blisters and ask if it has ever had an epoxy barrier applied. One other thing about Uniflites was that most I've seen do not have a stabilizing skeg. I've run one off the SF gate and it required a bit of steering to keep in a straight line when going 7-8kn in ocean swells. Not a show stopper, just make sure on sea trial to see if you like the handling.

 

[Crux]

I particularly like the aft cockpit model

Check the Uniflite Owners Club for 'before blister/after blister' year
https://www.facebook.com/Uniflite/

 

[mvweebles]

I owned and livedaboard a Uniflite 42 ACMY with Cummins 555s. Was early in my boating experience so I can't comment except I liked the boat, was a decent liveaboard. It was a 1975, just before the blister issue arose.

The Uniflite blister story is a long one, but suffice to say it put them out of business at a time when they were one of the largest recreational builders of motoryachts in the world. To be sure, their blister problem was severe in that the entire boat blistered, even above the waterline. I bumped into a guy up in the Delta who had a 30-ish foot Salty Dog sport fisher. He loved it and got a deal on it because it looked like an inverted golf ball. Truly a sight to behold - akin to hail damage on a car. According to him, the fish couldn't tell the difference.

There are still some bona-fide Uniflite experts floating around. Their inventory was purchased so there is still NOS parts up in the PNW.

Bottom line is I cannot speak to CC quality, but the severe blister issues were likely solved long before they purchased the molds in the early 1980s.

I hired a captain to help me bring it up the coast to San Francisco from Newport Beach. Boat did fine at 8 kts, though no following seas. Captain was incompetent. Spent most of the trip curled up seasick. So much for hiring a friend of a friend who was a sailing instructor....

Peter