FairKeel → Buyer's guides → Catalina 320
1993–2006 · designed by Gerry Douglas (Catalina Yachts in-house) · built by Catalina Yachts
Mid-size Catalina coastal cruiser slotting between the Catalina 30 and the Catalina 36. Designed for coastal cruising, weekending, and club racing. Standard fin-bulb keel plus optional shoal/wing keel, spade rudder, masthead sloop rig, and fiberglass construction — the production Catalina recipe. Roomy interior for the LOA; aft-cockpit.
Check this first — the standard boat has a fin-bulb keel with a shoal or wing keel offered as an option. Draft and ballast distribution both change with it, and so does grounding behaviour — a winged keel that beds into mud is harder to free than a fin. Establish which this hull carries before judging draft limits or stiffness.
This is a general read on the Catalina 320 class — informed background, not a verdict on any individual boat. Condition, refit history, and how a particular hull was sailed and stored matter far more than class reputation. Use it to know what to look for; for a read on a specific listing, run a free FairKeel report on that boat.
Engine variant depends on hull number and production year — Perkins M30 on early hulls, Westerbeke 29B / 30B during the mid-1990s transition, and Yanmar 3GM30F on later hulls. Heat exchanger + raw-water pump are typical 25-year wear items.
Most original wire + chainplates now at or past first re-rig interval (~20-25 years). Chainplate leaks into deck core around shrouds are the recurring class issue.
Class-typical Catalina pattern — moisture-meter survey essential. Targeted areas: stanchions, genoa tracks, chainplates, mast step, traveller. Localised repair affordable; widespread coring failure is a project-boat outcome.
Deck-stepped mast loads the deck core directly. Compression / moisture in the core under the mast step is a class issue on older hulls. Check deck flex + mast-step bedding.
This guide is the class. A report is that hull. Paste the listing you're looking at and FairKeel grades every claim in it against what's known about the Catalina 320 — where the evidence is thin, the red flags worth a second look, the costs likely to land in your first season, and whether the boat suits the plans you describe in a few short questions.
It won't read the photos or put a number on the boat — that's the $249 Deep-Dive, and for the real answer, a surveyor. It will tell you when a Deep-Dive isn't worth buying. Free, no account, usually a minute or two.
Run a free report on your listing →Other people's videos, not ours, and not endorsements — walkthroughs and reviews of this class that are worth watching before you look at one in person.
See something that doesn't look right? We'd love to know — email us about the Catalina 320 →