Catalina 36 Mk II Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

With its beam carried well aft, fairly flat sheer, and low-profile cabin, the result is a 36-foot 4-inch coastal cruiser. Its PHRF rating of 140–150 has remained essentially constant across appendage changes.

Design and Construction

Catalina builds the 36 Mk II from three main moldings: the hull, deck, and an interior liner that forms the cabin sole and much of the furniture. The hand-laid hull is solid fiberglass, with vinylester resin in the outer plies beneath the gelcoat to resist osmotic blistering.

The laminate alternates 7.5-ounce cloth, 24-ounce roving, and 1.5-ounce chopped-strand mat. Current models use more knitted than woven roving to improve structural integrity. Hull thickness is 1 inch at the centerline and 5/8 inch on the bottom panels.

The liner is bonded to the hull at every intersection with X-mat tape. Bulkheads are bedded in 3M 5200 and fastened to the liner. The deck is hand-laid and cored with Baltec end-grain balsa, replacing the plywood cores used in earlier versions. An overlapping hull-to-deck flange is bonded with a fiberglass-reinforced polyester mix and secured by 1/4-inch bolts on 6-inch centers.

Tie rods anchored at the chainplates and reinforced areas of the hull carry the lower-shroud loads. Deck hardware is machine-screwed into tapped aluminum plates bedded in the laminate.

Keel and Rig

The standard fin keel retains the design used on hull #1. It is a lead casting with 2% antimony, mounted on type 316 stainless-steel bolts, and weighs 6,042 pounds. A 6,670-pound shoal-draft wing keel replaced the Scheel option, which had met with limited success. On new boats, the rudder was reconfigured as a semi-elliptical blade.

Catalina builds the anodized mast in-house. The standard spar is 44 feet 9 inches tall, while an optional light-air rig adds 24 inches. Standing rigging consists of 5/16-inch upper shrouds and stays, with 1/4-inch lowers and a split backstay with adjustable turnbuckles.

The boat has jib and genoa tracks both inboard, near the cabin sides, and outboard on the toerail. Standard equipment includes a Schaeffer 2100 furler, a Garhauer solid vang and most deck hardware, Lewmar winches and hatches, self-tailing Lewmar 48 primary winches, Lewmar 30 halyard winches, and Dacron running rigging.

Sailing and Handling

In Practical Sailor’s test, the Catalina 36 Mk II made 5.7 knots under full main alone in 16 knots of true wind and 5.5–6 knots upwind with the 135% genoa. Reefed and heeled to about 15 degrees—its best attitude—it sailed at 6.2 knots during the test.

With a double reef and 105% jib, it reached 7.1 knots, touched 7.6 knots on the beat, and made 8–8.5 knots after footing off onto a broad reach. That was a knot above theoretical hull speed. Tacking angles with the genoa were about 100 degrees.

The deck layout suits shorthanded sailing, with 17-inch-wide side decks, a 1-1/2-inch toerail, and a full-length handrail on the cabintop. The 24-inch stanchions and 25-inch mast pulpit, however, fall short of offshore preferences.

The 42-inch destroyer wheel eases heavy-weather steering but makes it harder for a singlehander to move forward to the sheet or mainsail controls. Wet cockpit seats also became slippery when the boat heeled beyond 10 degrees.

Accommodations

The accommodation plan is nearly 20 years old and remains essentially unchanged apart from minor storage revisions. The saloon extends 13 feet 4 inches from the companionway to the forward stateroom, with 6 feet 5 inches of headroom.

A U-shaped dinette seats four; an L-shaped version is optional. The 25-by-30-inch game table converts into a 6-foot 2-inch berth.

At the foot of the companionway, the L-shaped galley lies to port. It has a Seaward two-burner propane stove and a 60-inch counter. Opposite is the navigation station, with a 22-by-26-inch chart table, a bulkhead for electronics, and a swinging-chair seat.

Forward to port, the head measures 50 by 36 inches and includes a shower seat. It can be entered from both the saloon and the V-berth. The V-berth is 90 inches wide at its head.

A second stateroom beneath the cockpit is entered from the port quarter. Its stern bunk measures 78 by 80 inches. Clearance beneath the cockpit is only 16 inches, but the forward end has 5 feet 10 inches of headroom and a hanging locker.

Maintenance and Known Issues

Owners responding to Practical Sailor’s survey commonly reported chainplate leaks, requiring annual inspection or rebedding. Interior woodwork was another frequent source of complaints.

During the test sail, the inboard genoa track proved at least a foot too short for hard upwind sailing with a double-reefed main and shortened headsail.

One owner noted that the dining-table bracket is so far off-center that a large person thrown against the inboard edge could break it. The navigation-station chair’s lock doesn’t always hold on starboard tack, and the chair blocks access to the aft stateroom.

Access to the Universal 35B diesel is available through the companionway steps and an aft-stateroom panel. Even so, reaching the port side of the engine is a difficult chore.

Updates, Documentation, and Ownership

Current boats addressed the navigation-chair complaint with a bronze bearing on the swivel and a stronger spring. The backrest also removes easily for owners unhappy with the chair’s footprint.

Newer boats added a second electrical panel at the navigation station, along with a Perko master switch. Their windows overlap the fiberglass by 1-1/2 inches, and few leaks have been reported.

The 78-page owner’s manual documents the boat’s systems, through-hulls, and parts. The warranty covers the structure for five years and blisters under a depreciating five-year schedule. The builder noted that three owners have circumnavigated without incident.

The Verdict

The Catalina 36 Mk II is a thoughtfully updated coastal cruiser. It preserves one-design compatibility while refining construction and ergonomics for short-handed sailing by couples and families. Its solid-fiberglass hull, balsa-cored deck, and lead keel provide predictable performance across a wide range of wind conditions, while the accommodation plan remains spacious and practical after nearly two decades.

Persistent chainplate maintenance and several cockpit and navigation-station quirks are the tradeoffs in this pragmatic production design.

Pros