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Catana 42 Boat Tour: The Aft Section

Thirty years old, and the back end of this boat is still one of the best-thought-out parts of her. This is where that becomes obvious.

The Back Step: Small Change, Big Difference

The back step got a small modification early on — a little edge added to make it more livable. It sounds minor, but it made a real difference the handful of times we’ve actually gone side-to at a dock: step straight off the transom onto the dock, no clambering over the side rail. Not something we use often — we’ve been off the dock for the better part of a year — but when it matters, it matters.

Older boats often come with full-height transoms and a ladder up the back, which is genuinely awful to deal with as a safety feature. If you ever need to recover someone from the water, a low transom with a ladder right there is a vital part of the puzzle, not a nice-to-have.

The steps themselves came with the boat and aren’t great — hollow, a bit of a pain to use. Solid steps all the way through are on the future upgrade list.

The dinghy sits right beside the boarding platform, close enough to grab the side and step aboard directly. A cleat placed right at the back means the dinghy can be secured and painted out from inside the dinghy itself, without needing to climb up first.

The Outside Shower — Genuinely the Most-Used Fitting on the Boat

It doesn’t look like much, but the outside shower off the back step gets used literally every day. We don’t shower inside at all — showering indoors in the tropics just makes the whole boat humid, so keeping that activity outside on a proper platform to stand on matters more than it sounds. We’re actually considering putting one on each side, that’s how much this gets used.

Why We’d Never Choose a Walk-Through Transom Again

A walk-through transom was originally high on the wish list — it’s the fashionable choice, and it looks great at the dock. Offshore, it’s a different story entirely. With this non-walk-through style, a wave that catches the back of the boat has nowhere to go — it can’t come up the steps and into the cockpit the way it can on a boat with an open transom. Plenty of boats have taken a wave straight up the back and into the cockpit. This one doesn’t, and once you’ve actually used the boat offshore, that trade-off isn’t close.

It costs nothing day-to-day either — we use this boat hard for wing foiling, snorkeling, paddleboarding, dinghying, all of it, and the lack of a walk-through has never once been the limiting factor.

Dinghy Davits and the Solar Arch

The davits keep the dinghy up out of the worst of the wave action, helped by decent wing deck clearance. They’re stainless now, but a future upgrade will swap them for carbon and lift the whole arrangement even higher — every bit of extra clearance helps when waves still occasionally reach up and slap the dinghy.

Running solar over the davits does double duty: it shades the dinghy from sun and rain, which matters more than it sounds for keeping it in good shape. The trade-off is weight hanging off the stern, which isn’t ideal on a performance boat — a genuine double-edged sword, and one that’s driving the next revision of the arch. This is version three of that setup, with more evolution still to come.

Twin Helm Stations: Sailing vs. Standing Watch

Twin helms were non-negotiable, coming from a racing background. When you’re on the helm, you’re sailing the boat — hands on the wheel, sail trimmed, winches within reach, actively working the boat rather than sitting on watch. Watch-keeping is a completely different activity and happens somewhere else entirely — out here at the helm is far too exposed for a long passage watch, and that’s fine, because exposure is exactly what you want when you’re actively sailing and need to see and feel everything. The helm position doubles as a genuinely good vantage point for close-quarters maneuvering too.

Winch Layout

Primary and spinnaker winches sit right next to each wheel. The spinnaker lead has one quirk still to sort — nicknamed the “square of death,” due for an upgrade — but the headsail leads in cleanly, especially useful from the leeward helm. The mainsheet winch sits to windward of the helm, tied into the A-frame mainsheet system on the leeward side — a system that hasn’t been a favorite, and won’t be getting a repeat recommendation to anyone building a similar setup.

Why the Cockpit Is This Big

A 42-footer with a cockpit this size stands out, and it earns the space two ways. At anchor, it’s genuinely a living space — plenty of room for people. Under sail, it’s shared working space: people moving between winches, raising and lowering sails, actually running the boat, which means it needs to be big enough to do that safely.

It’s also more protected than it looks. Tucked behind the cabin top, a wave that breaks over the top explodes across the roof rather than straight into the cockpit — there’s room to duck under it. Compare that to a forward-cockpit design, which takes the brunt of every bit of weather with no shelter at all. Easing a headsail from here means stepping out the door, easing, and stepping straight back in — genuinely low-exposure compared to the alternative.

The Hardtop: The Single Best Upgrade So Far

If a boat comes with a soft top, putting a hardtop on is the first modification worth making, full stop. This was the first serious project done on the boat, chosen specifically because it opened up proper access to the boom — something the original aluminum arch and soft cover made genuinely difficult, with a zipper that was a nightmare to manage.

Now it’s a walk-up, knee-height platform the whole way along, non-skid the entire surface because it’s meant to be a genuine working area — unzip, deal with a batten that’s tried to self-eject, ease the boom mid-maneuver while surfing down a wave. It’s also useful real estate for another 20+ years of solar panels.

Instrument and Autopilot Placement

The autopilot controls live right by the door for a specific reason: on a long passage, the one place you’re never sitting is out at the exposed helm — it’s shady and protected right here, and that’s where watch actually happens. If a manual correction is ever needed, it’s a short, clear run from here to the helm stations.

The Central Winch: Borrowed From Short-Handed Race Boats

A central winch handles all the mainsail controls, running from the mast through the cabin top down to this position — the same basic layout used on Mocra 60s and Class 40s, for the same reason: less running rigging, less friction, less hardware, and it works from either tack without a boom overhead getting in the way. The only real downside is the stainless friction drum the line runs over at the corner — simple and reliable, but it does add friction and wear the line over time. Cutting a proper sheave slot into a structural section of the cabin top isn’t worth it for that trade-off.

The Small Stuff That Still Needs Fixing

A few things are on the list. The companionway door is genuinely too small — head-height teak that’s been hit more times than is comfortable to admit. The acrylic door itself is light but awkward, especially half-closed, and there’s no lip above it to stop water running down and dripping straight into the doorway — a rough gutter helps redirect some of it for now, but it’s a proper fix waiting to happen. The main window back here is due to become a sliding opening for better airflow and visibility, though it needs care: that window carries real torsional stiffness for the structure back here, so any replacement has to match that load path, not just look better.

In This Series

This is Part 1 of the Catana 42 boat tour. Continue the walk-around here:

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