Catalina 270- Views?

As with all Catalinas (I have a 320) there is a thriving owners forum, where you can pose questions about -for example - problems to be aware of when buying and so on. Also manuals, technical tips and hints, owners modifications and so on.

The 270 is the update of the 27, of which over 6000 were built.

www.catalina27.org
 
Someone on here once said that the Catalina 27 is the world's best selling yacht. I've just been googling it but found no proof of that. Any yachts with more than 6000 built?
 
Thanks Skyflyer, I shall look at the site. apparently there are only 5 270's in the country so I might get lucky and get one of the owners to tell me what to look for.
 
Thanks Skyflyer, I shall look at the site. apparently there are only 5 270's in the country so I might get lucky and get one of the owners to tell me what to look for.

It’s about the same with 320s but the forum (actually an email list) is a fantastic place for info. For example last year I wanted to install a below deck ram driven autopilot. There were at least three guys who had done that before and were able to give me boat specific guidance

This is the second 320 I’ve had. I used to have a 1/3 share which after 5 years I sold when I found one if my own! I think they’re great boats for cruising etc. Can’t speak for the 270 of course but suspect they’re popular for a reason!
 
The Catalina 27 is same design as the Jaguar 27. I understood the design was the worlds best selling yacht. I used to own one in another life. Not sure about the 270 but presume it’s an updated version of the 27? The Catalina has an active users association albeit manly US based.
 
The Catalina 270 is more a scaled down 320 as it is simply a more modern yacht with more beam, better facilities and layout than the 27. It handles well, the wing keel keeps it sailing very well for a shallow draft yacht and even having a wheel does not disguise that it has good manners. The hull is about 300mm beamier than a Catalina or Jaguar 27.

When Catalina changed the model to the Catalina 275 they retained the hull and keel/rudder layout, only changing the deck and cabin to make it a less capacious ‘weekender’ rather than the family cruiser that the 270 is.
 
There is one for sale on Apolloduck (I googled it). Photos and description give a fair idea of what the boat is like and ties in with the description above.

Catalina made sporadic attempts to sell in this country and I guess that the few that got in during the mid 90's were part of one of the attempts. Unfortunately their boats were never sufficiently distinctive to gain sales and this type of boat in particular was never a good bet for this market at the time. Under 30' boat sales were declining rapidly, particularly as the used boat market was filling up with boats from 10-20 years earlier as new boat buyers were moving up in size.
 
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