Hello All,
I am new to sailing and bought a 1974 Catalina 22 last summer that seems to be in pretty good shape. Had it in the water several times but never raised the sails because I didn't want to unleash the power of the wind without knowing what I am doing. Just motored around with the keel in the down position, believing those advising me of the catastrophic risk of a cable breaking while underway with the keel in the up position. Took sailing lessons in late Fall and will be sailing on my own this Spring.
The reason for this post is that I have been wanting to inspect the cable-to-keel connection and need to know if what I am looking at is normal. Today I got out a floor jack, gathered several pieces of lumber, and carefully jacked the boat off its cradle on the trailer, placing lumber in the gaps between the boat and the cradle as they got wide enough. It only took raising it about 2" before I could see the keel connection. BTW, I loosened the keel cable 3"-4" before I started so I wouldn't have to get in the boat while it was jacked up (even though it would have been safe with the lumber "shims" in place along the cradle).
The attached pictures show what appears to me to be a stud coming out of the keel rather than the hole in the keel I was expecting to see. The shine in the pictures is water because I had just used a garden hose to spray the lake moss away. Does this keel connection look normal to you? Also, what is the round thing in the middle of the keel (Boat_3 image) with the bolt going through the center. Thank you for any comments.
I am new to sailing and bought a 1974 Catalina 22 last summer that seems to be in pretty good shape. Had it in the water several times but never raised the sails because I didn't want to unleash the power of the wind without knowing what I am doing. Just motored around with the keel in the down position, believing those advising me of the catastrophic risk of a cable breaking while underway with the keel in the up position. Took sailing lessons in late Fall and will be sailing on my own this Spring.
The reason for this post is that I have been wanting to inspect the cable-to-keel connection and need to know if what I am looking at is normal. Today I got out a floor jack, gathered several pieces of lumber, and carefully jacked the boat off its cradle on the trailer, placing lumber in the gaps between the boat and the cradle as they got wide enough. It only took raising it about 2" before I could see the keel connection. BTW, I loosened the keel cable 3"-4" before I started so I wouldn't have to get in the boat while it was jacked up (even though it would have been safe with the lumber "shims" in place along the cradle).
The attached pictures show what appears to me to be a stud coming out of the keel rather than the hole in the keel I was expecting to see. The shine in the pictures is water because I had just used a garden hose to spray the lake moss away. Does this keel connection look normal to you? Also, what is the round thing in the middle of the keel (Boat_3 image) with the bolt going through the center. Thank you for any comments.
