Catalina 22 Swing Keel Winch [EP 110]

[@huntsail3727]

Thanks for posting this. I have a Venture Newport 23 with a similar cable, swing keel setup. The cable jumped off of the winch's drum without me noticing it, and is now tightly wrapped around the axle and the winch body with the keel about 3/4 down. I can sail it and have been, but will be taking the boat out of the water at the end of April and will need to find a way to fix it. I am hoping the launch ramp and trailer will physically force the keel up enough to get the boat on the trailer. This video gave me a good idea of how the winch is put together, so now I just have to jump in and see what I can do. A boat yard wanted almost $1,000 to repair it for parts and labor, because they said they would have to use the lift to get the boat out of the water, put it on stands, store it until they could get to it and get the parts for it. Your video may be a life/boat saver. Thanks

[@SailingtheWestWind]

That sounds expensive. My boat yard locally charges $500 for a round-trip in and out of the water. A new cable guide Ball and the rest of the pieces weren’t $500. I have faith you can do it. As you saw in this video or a similar video that I posted,sometimes it takes two people to wind up the cable. One person above, tighten the winch and the other person down below holding tension on the cable. Let me know if you have more questions in the future.

[@ronriley2811]

I enjoy learning about your Catalina 22. I recently became interested in sailing so I am trying to learn everything I can. I'll keep watching.

[@SailingtheWestWind]

Thanks Ron I appreciate it. And thank you for committing.

[@KostasLazanas]

That was a great video. I just bought a Catalina 22z. My winch goes up fine but has troubles going down.

[@SailingtheWestWind]

Look at the brass ball and to make sure your cable is run, right

[@petermoseley9051]

thanks so much for the views; I found my cable had broken yesterday and the keel and BOAT is stuck in the mud, so to speak, any suggestions would be MUCH appreciated!!!

[@SailingtheWestWind]

Can you move your boat forward?

[@petermoseley9051]

@@SailingtheWestWind Yes by shoving and using a 2x4 as a pry bar i moved it about 2 ft so today i had to relocate the aft dock cleat Put on my wetsuit but its just too cold to go all the way under, but i could see the keel shadow and ran my foot across the top to where the attach point is Seems the cable broke free of the attachment (not bad as its 40 years old) and most of it is up on the winch Replacement time?

[@SailingtheWestWind]

Do you have a phone number I can call yet to give you more information?

[@martyb3783]

Great video! Thanks very much. The design of your winch is much simpler than mine. My winch and cable system is over-engineered to the point of being ridiculous. This video helped very much. Thanks again!

[@SailingtheWestWind]

Search KZbin for Jim’s little boat. He has a video showing fixing a friction winch. That may help.

[@martyb3783]

@@SailingtheWestWind I am mostly interested in mounting options and how they run from the cable from the winch to the keel. Thanks again!

[@dennismiller2536]

Need to do this too

[@DennisKenneybees]

Great video with good detail. I wonder if the winch could be powered so it could be operated remotely from the cockpit while sailing?

[@SailingtheWestWind]

The system is kind of fragile. I personally would not do that. That’s just me. Good luck and have fun. Thank you for the comment.

[@alendri1]

TY

[@SailingtheWestWind]

You are very welcome. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.

[@benkanobe7500]

Excellent! Thank You for showing the groove in the ball from the silicone jamming the turning of the ball. I would have made that mistake! I so wish you videoed the cable into the winch part, but maybe it will be obvious when I do mine. Where do I purchase the blue jack stands that are holding up the boat?

[@SailingtheWestWind]

You can purchase the jacks from West Marine. Oh West Marine is where I got my blue jacks.

[@SailingtheWestWind]

West Marine will deliver them to your house.

[@scottborah5834]

Have you had your Catalina under sail yet? If you have any questions let me know, my first time out with my wife we had the original sails and a old outboard, good day of sailing. Put the sails down went to motor back in and the outboard wouldn’t stay running. We tried sailing back in and the wind had pick up, we undershot cove 3 times, finally our main blew out, we drifted to shore on other side of lake. We ended up getting new main a job and Genoa, and got rid of furler. Wife insisted on new outboard 😀been sailing her a lot since then

[@SailingtheWestWind]

Dang. Crazy. Thanks for the comment

[@JohnVH-diy]

Install a friction winch unless you like breaking your arm when you release the pawl and the heavy keel drops.

[@SailingtheWestWind]

I may next year. So far no broken arms. Thank you for your suggestion. 👍

[@russellbynum2414]

What's the 2-legged metal pipe contraption between the keel winch cable and the cockpit drains?

[@SailingtheWestWind]

The guy before me got some galvanized pipe fittings to make a support for the area around the swing keel winch. It actually looks kind of funky, but it works pretty good. There are a plastic piece under each foot.

[@sundog4012]

You may or may not want to reconsider how you ran your cable past the turning ball. The ball's purpose is to prevent the cable from contacting and sawing into the keel trunk when the keel is lowered and the cable end clevis moves forward. In the design case the cable should run aft of the ball. I see, however, that you have moved your keel attachment point aft because the tang is missing from the keel. That repositioning may be enough to prevent the cable from contacting the trunk when the keel is all the way down. In that case you're OK and, depending on how far aft your new keel attachment point is, the cable may even need to bend aft a bit when the keel is raised all the way. In that case, the ball will be serving its purpose when the keel is raised instead of lowered. If you can use a dentist's mirror and flashlight you might be able to look up through the pipe when the keel is most of the way up to see which way the cable bends. If your boat is high enough above the ground you might be able to lower the keel most of the way to see if the cable contacts the trunk. Before I replaced my ball, cable, and tube lat week I got some really good information from Jim at kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmmmga1of8ehh6M

[@SailingtheWestWind]

Thank you for your comment. After watching my video I am moved to in front rather than I’m back how I found it. I also have watched that video. Thank you again.

[@howlinhog]

I'd be figuring out a way to mount that someplace besides the bottom of a fiberglass window frame opening (if that's what I'm actually seeing). If there's more structure to that opening than is showing, great. If there isn't, and the fiberglass around the opening is showing distress cracks like I think it is, I bet it's not the original configuration. A narrow swing set style framework on either side of the cable tube with your winch between the two would take all the stress off that window frame.

[@SailingtheWestWind]

Thank you for taking time to comment. If I’m reading your comment correctly, you are commenting about the swing keel winch. If that is the case, Catalina has made thousands of these boats, with little to no failure. Someone besides myself put the extra support in. That’s what another Catalina owner and viewer was asking about. Thanks again for taking time to comment.

[@howlinhog]

@@SailingtheWestWind Cool! I know nothing about those boats. It just looked like the framework that the winch hangs from is kinda weak. You obviously have a much better view than I do. So then is that the original from Catalina mounting configuration?

[@SailingtheWestWind]

@@howlinhog yes, it’s factory. Not the best design but it seems to work. Kind of crazy.

[@scottborah5834]

You should run cable behind ball, not in front, it won’t do any good there. Also consider removing winch mount, adding many layers of fiberglass at the mount point to strengthen, with stainless or aluminum plate on top . Remove that bracing, you don’t want any pressure on your hull right there. Always slack your cable when you trailer and strap keel down to trailer to keep it from bouncing. Some people leave tension on cable and if it bounces, it can destroy where your winch mounts. I did a similar thing with my keel bolt, my original broke will remounting keel, tried to drill out and replace, but tap broke and threader broke, I had a small shake before, like yours, but decided bigger is better, went with 1/2 in d shackle , mounted 2 inches below original bolt, be safe sailing

[@SailingtheWestWind]

Thank you for the advice. I did reroute the cable.

[@scottborah5834]

@@SailingtheWestWind that’s good, I bought a 72 Catalina 22 in Kansas, had to do lots of work, moved to Florida, loving sailing it here, good luck with the sailing and the channel

[@gordonbrown2836]

Where do you have your bilge pump exiting?

[@SailingtheWestWind]

Port side. Behind the dinette seat and under the cockpit seat, in the big open area. Above the water line

[@freddyluckily6286]

I've never seen galvanized pipes for the drainage setup.

[@SailingtheWestWind]

The pipes are not drains,but supports for the winch support.