Restoration of 1981 C-22 swing keel #10580

[CloudDiver]

Well, Photobucket seems to have to worked itself out so I was able to upload some pics. Here are some things I've been messing with.
We were all talking about locking the outboard and steering with the rudder several months ago; this finally came in the mail from Defender. It had been on back-order so long that I forgot about it, I think I had ordered it in February.

 

[CloudDiver]

I was messing with some rigging ideas the other night. I picked up some 7/32" Amsteel when it was on sale at WM, buy one foot get one foot free; so at .39 per foot I got 100 feet for $19.50
I will be possibly be using lashing to make tension for the lifelines, but I may also use deadeyes for the forestay. I have all new turnbuckles, but my synthetic rigging can be tricky... when splicing the eyes it takes some serious math and a little trial and error to figure out how much line is lost to locking brummel splices and then gain back when I stretch it under 400 pounds of tension on my rigging table. My forestay actually came up 2 inches short. (on a side note, when I figured out my math error I then spliced one of my main shrouds and got it within 1/8"). Anyway, I have a 2 inch long shackle to make up the difference, but I was wondering if I could use lashing to create tension instead. I also don't want to spend extra boat-bucks on Colligo deadeyes so I figured I would try what I have seen many riggers do, just lash through stainless sailmakers eyes.
Any good experiment has a control experiment first, so I set up one of my 1/4" turn buckles on the rigging table with the digital scale to see what kind of pull I get in pounds. I only turned the body to the half way point, it was getting a bit difficult to wrench in half turns of a flat table. I got to around 140 lbs of tension and it settled to 110 lbs.

 

[CloudDiver]

Next, I wanted to see what kind on tension I would be able to pull on my adjustable backstay. Here I am just using the tackle without the extra block and wire, so you can imagine I will get even better results. The key point to testing this was to know that if I were to use lashing to set my forestay, even If I can't pull some crazy amount of tension, as long as it is firmly set and vertical I can get the majority of tuning tension from the backstay.
Spiked around 150 pounds, settled to about 130 lbs.

 

[CloudDiver]

So I spliced a short scrap piece of NE Ropes 3mm Dyneema STS HSR with eyes at either end and set the splices at about 400 pounds on my 2 speed bench winch. One end is a standard thimble just as an attachment point, the other end uses a closed sailmakers thimble from Ronstan, of which I use a larger size than normal to give more space for the lashing. There still is much space for multiple passes of lashing even with a larger eye, the more passes you try to make, the more they bind up on each other. Basically, I just got two complete passes. I put a couple turns and hitches on my largest splicing fid and pulled with all my might. I din't get any pics of the scale as I was trying to find the best mechanical advantage to pull tension and girlfriend was watching the scale. It spiked around 60 pounds and settled to less than 20 by the time I had locked and turned the lashings.

 

[CloudDiver]

So the verdict? Well, the jury is still out. I know I can put a fair bit of tension on it, but I need to find a more efficient way of doing it and get better at locking and lashing. Also, its obvious that the turns bind up on each other in the small eyes. I don't really want to buy the Colligo deadeyes, but my curiosity will never be satisfied if I don't at least test it... so I ordered them from Vella Sailing Supply. If I don't use them for the forestay I will probably surely use them to cinch the lifelines. I will post the same pull test with the Colligo bits once I get them, the rigging bench is all set up and ready to go.

In other news... I finally got the last parts of the companion way sorted out. The sliding hatch trim, handle, and lock hasp are installed. I function checked everything and I'm pretty happy. I still have to bed the whole mess in goo... (and wash off all my grubby finger prints, lol)

 

[Leeward Rail]

Looks like that steering lock could be modified ?
Instead of bolting it in place, I wonder if it can be bolted to flat metal stock and have it designed so it can be pushed in/out with a lever. Is there enough clearance ?

I figure I'll be looking into some alternatives once my Tohatsu arrives.

 

[Alexsip]

Hi Luke, been wondering how did the summer treated you? Did you get any sailing done? How's the project going?
Regards

 

[CloudDiver]

Hi Luke, been wondering how did the summer treated you? Did you get any sailing done? How's the project going?
Regards

I have been working on the rigging and deck hardware. I made separate posts about my progress there. I have still not had the time to repair all the photos on this thread. Photobucket still will not allow me to download all my photos with the download tool, I have to do them individually and that will be very time consuming.
If you go to my profile and search for threads that I have started you will find the other posts about the Seadek I installed in the cockpit and the rigging progress.

 

[Gene Neill]

Hey Luke, whatever became of the blistering paint situation in the cockpit? Ever determine the cause?

 

[CloudDiver]

Hey Luke, whatever became of the blistering paint situation in the cockpit? Ever determine the cause?

Nope... I have no idea of the cause (chemically) but if standing water sits in the corner it happens. Dry up the water and they go away. haven't had the chance to call Interlux and see if they have ever heard of such a thing with Brightsides as the topcoat.

 

[LakeShark]

So Luke,
How is the whole resto going? Did you ever get those new sails straightened out? How about the mooring you were working on? Have you had the boat in the water yet? I know you have mentioned elsewhere about the frustration of all the pictures disappearing but hey inquiring minds still want to know how is it going?

 

[CloudDiver]

So Luke,
How is the whole resto going? Did you ever get those new sails straightened out? How about the mooring you were working on? Have you had the boat in the water yet? I know you have mentioned elsewhere about the frustration of all the pictures disappearing but hey inquiring minds still want to know how is it going?

Work has pretty much halted since I was working on the rigging and sails last November. Since then I have been distracted by a changing of roommates in my home, a much needed purge of 'stuff' and other junk, and some repairs and light remodeling of a few rooms in my house.
I'm close to finished with the major house work and trying to shift focus back the C22. I took down all the rigging and stored the mast on the long side fence of my yard. The goal is to get the hull/trailer back into the shop to finish up the interior work, but I have some serious re-organizing to do so I will have the space free. Probably something I had neglected to mention, but I am now in possession of the mold for the International 505 racing dinghy made by Pegasus Racing. No immediate plans to lay-up a new hull but I would like to at some point. Anyway, That mold is taking up 18 ft of my space and it will take some tricky tetris action to squeeze my C-22 back inside.
Primarily all I have left on the C22 is the interior work and electrical wiring. I'm hoping to have the boat in Mission by this summer, but it needs to be complete before I can get the USCG inspection and I cannot get my mooring ball on the bay without the inspection first. My mooring is complete except for the cast-iron V8 engine block, but I should have a spare at a local shop. Lots to do and just a 1 man army to do it.

 

[CloudDiver]

*** UPDATE TO THREAD STATUS ***
I finally hunkered down and figured out a way to download my picture library from Photobucket. The 'download album' link never worked and has now vanished completely, so now the only way to DL all of your pics is an Android Ap that have to buy ($2), but works in Google Chrome if you use a Mac like I do.

Anyway, now that I have all my pictures I have just went through a long process of re-naming them by subject/job in folders on my HD. Now I will begin going back through this entire thread and editing each post to replace the pics one by one. I have over 500 pics in my C22 folder, and I'm fairly certain I used nearly all of them in this thread. So will see this thread having regular updates for awhile but no new content; the updates will be me adding the pics back to all of the various posts to make this documented restoration worth a crap again, lol!

 

[pclarksurf]

Totally worth it! A veritable treasure trove of Intel.

 

[rpludwig]

Totally worth it! A veritable treasure trove of Intel.

+1!

 

[Gene Neill]

Forty pages of photo replacement. You should be getting paid for this, Luke, or at least getting a medal or something. Most of us would have thrown up our hands in disgust and walked away.

 

[CloudDiver]

Forty pages of photo replacement. You should be getting paid for this, Luke, or at least getting a medal or something. Most of us would have thrown up our hands in disgust and walked away.

It was @Phil Herring that motivated me to do this. He told me in another post that this thread was important and he would hate to loose it. It was nice hearing from a moderator that my work makes a difference. I just want this stuff to stick around as a reference to anyone who could benefit from the knowledge, trial and error, and methods. Its all worth if I can save anyone some time, frustration, and especially money on doing this type of work.

*Weekend update* I took a few days of vacation from work so I can relax and just putter around with this. So far I have restored the pics to the first 5 pages, just 35 left to go! LOL (yes, I'm bat-$H!t crazy)

 

[C22-Daydreamer]

Do the letters OCD sound familiar? But seriously this should be a manual for how to restore a a sailboat. You could sell this as a hardcover!

 

[ShotgunSlim]

Luke, keep this up and the internet C-22 community will start to refer to you as "The new Chip Ford."

 

[CloudDiver]

Just finished replacing photos through page 10... 25% done. Ugh!

Update on 15 April, now up to page 20, half way there...