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Ahoy, CS4A Members!
Happy Holidays from your Board, and wishes for a great 2026!
As the end of 2025 approaches, it's a good time to thank you for being part of the CS4A and recap happenings and our accomplishments in 2025.
First/most important of all, the Catalina Yachts soap opera continues. Recently, Reardon's investors reneged, and the buyer went into default and Catalina Yachts has reverted to the Butler Foundation. At one point, Reardon was escorted from the Catalina Yachts property.
I tried calling Catalina December 24, but their phone is out-of-service. Warren Pandy's (Customer Service) phone also is out-of-service. However, the Catalina Yachts/True North website still is up, and the link to the Catalina Mainsheet still is active, although the digital version of Spring 2025 (Volume 43, No. 1) is the last edition listed and requires a password. More on that, below.
Several dealers discussed taking-over the company, but no agreement was reached. I was told by a dealer that it would take six months and 1$MM to get the company going again (more to keep it going - as much as $5MM?), but many employees (who weren't paid) have left and gone down the street to Island Packet. Catalina Yachts' president, Patrick Turner, has left Catalina and gone to Tartan (another Daedalus Yachts acquisition).
We started 2025 with 224 members and ended with 245 - a 9.4% increase!
BTW, 5 members are from Australia, while 22 are from Canada, and 1 each from New Zealand and the UK.
Financials
In December 2024 (almost 2025), the C4SA was left without any form of legal status with the resignations of several members of the board after selling their boats. We established an interim board that produced a revised set of bylaws to allow the organization to continue.
The Interim Board Officers consisted of:
The Interim Board Directors consisted of:
At the same time, Tom Sokoloski (C4SA Treasurer) wrote: The Catalina 4 Series Association is undergoing a small transformation (new officers, new Bylaws), and as part of that transformation, we have created a new category of membership. It is an Honorary Membership, and it includes all the benefits of membership, without the annual dues. It was created as a small token of appreciation for members who have given many years of volunteer service to the associations and former associations that make up the current C4SA.
In March, we held voting for the Board of Directors and the proposed Bylaws, and the Interim Board Members were elected to continue.
In April, Catalina Yachts was sold to Michael Reardon of Daedalus Yachts, and announced a "temporary" production pause due to corporate restructuring and financial challenges caused a disruption in the operations of Catalina Yachts and with it, timely publication of the Catalina Mainsheet magazine that's been delayed since the Spring (despite assurances from Catalina President Patric Turner that it would continue). Even though Turner assured us that production would continue and existing orders would be fulfilled, Catalina has ceased production altogether and there's no further word on its resumption.
In August, the Catalina 22 Association and I wrote separate emails to Patrick Turner about resumption of the Catalina Mainsheet, and although they were read, we never received a response.
As a result of the Catalina Mainsheet suspension, your Board extended memberships for an extra year (so don't look for a renewal email for a while).
Holly Hannah (Catalina Yachts Store) took the offensive and polled all associations' editors about redirecting their portion of Catalina Mainsheet support to transitioning to a digital magazine, and response was positive.
Holly will be heading the project, and David Landis, who had handled the printed version, will serve in the same capacity as before to coordinate content for the digital version, which will be released on or before March 1, 2026, and she'll be sending easy step-by-step instructions on how to view and download it ahead of the release date.
She wrote, "Thank you so much for your continued support of the Association! We're incredibly excited to bring you the new digital edition, and we can't wait for you to experience the improved, modern format."
On a personal note, I've been especially interested in this edition because it contains the third - and last - installment of my three-part article on my wife's and my path from non-sailors to C34 owners, to Leopard catamaran owners, and finally back to monohull owners with Tweety Bird, our 2023 C425 through the extraordinary assistance of John Middleton of Sail Annapolis (who had a boat for us when no one else did in 3Q 2022).
Swag Merchandise - contact John Hooper at johndhooper@yahoo.com to order.
Now that the Catalina Mainsheet will resume, please send any articles (cruises, projects, etc.) to me as Mainsheet editor at Editor.
Best regards,
Jon Arck
C4SA Commodore