I was very surprised (pleasantly) at how thick the hull was on my 2001 Catalina 42 when I saw the plugs that were taken out for transducer installs. Catalina is a bit more "old school" in many of their build processes. If you peel the onion and look at the size of standing rigging, depth of bilge, backing plates, battery installations, bulkhead structure, etc., they outshine Beneteau in most cases. Beneteau usually has more bells, whistles, and pizazz. Most of the buying public is focused on the "look" of the boat rather than the method of securing the batteries.