I'm a new owner of a 1981 Catalina 27, bought this past July and sailed until October. Had a blast learning to sail her. I have a lot of projects scheduled for the winter to try to update some of the things I think have been neglected. I've pulled the boat from the water and it's now sitting on a trailer. The two I've jumped into right away are painting the mast and installing proper thru hulls. I have a question about some of the hardware on the mast. I'm pulling all of the hardware off the mast to begin prep for painting but there's two small pad eyes on the upper part of the mast half way between the spreaders and the mast head. There was nothing attached to them when I bought the boat and I'm wondering what they are used for. A little enlightenment would be appreciated.
Catalina 27 New Owner
- Thread starter motobasturd
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Welcome!
Here is at video about mast painting.
Several on you tube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujepzUCzWdA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Here is at video about mast painting.
Several on you tube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujepzUCzWdA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
They are probably for lazy-jacks. How did you remove the bolt for the spreader brackerts. I was able to remove one bracket but the other is still attached and I can't ge the bolt out. it just spins.
Frank, I replace my spreader bracket with the stainless steel one from Catalina Direct. The through bolt holding the metal tangs for the lowers had corroded and bonded to the aluminum sleeve that the bolt runs through. The bolt would turn but not pull out of the compression tube sleeve. The sleeve is inside the mast. There was no way that bolt was coming out with any normal efforts. I ended up sheering off the bolt close to the mast on each side and then drilling out the bolt from each side so that bolt and sleeve fell out of its position. Now you mention the bolt for the spreader bracket. If I remember right I think those bolts are through bolts and I didn't have any trouble removing the two of them from the spreader bracket. You may have to end up using a grinder to get the bracket off. Thinking about it some more now I do seem to recall that I had some difficulty with the bracket and had to use a small four inch grinder on the bracket in some way. Hope this helps somewhat.
That makes sense, I don't have lazy jacks but that's not to say the boat didn't have them at some time. Same here, one bracket came off but the other is just spinning on the remaining bolt and spacer. I'm soaking it in oil to try to get it to release but it that doesn't work I will probably cut it out and put a new bolt and spacer in. Thanks for the replays. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I get into this.
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