drifting... keel not down?

[Nick Bowman]

I just purchased a 1979 swing keel Catalina 22 about a month ago, and was very happy with it until about a week ago. A friend was sailing it in light (5mph) wind and complained that the boat drifted to the leeward while on a reach, so much he had to motor back. I told him he must have overtrimmed the sails, and i had more success than he did in the same conditions, but i could still notice the boat slipping sideways when i was in the harbor steering around moored boats. Could it be that the keel is not all the way down? I checked the keel while under the trailer and it appeared normal, it wasn't touching the sides of the keel trunk. Any ideas? Thanks a lot!-Nick

 

[Nick]

addition

oh, forgot to add that the keel cable was lowered all the way and without tension, even a few cranks extra....

 

[Brian]

Ya don't say

With "light" winds and not knowing what the sail inventory was it may have been very difficult to "point" at all. the keel can't hold as well and forget about "lift" without at least some speed. try again on a day with a little more wind and you will probably have more "control" good luck

 

[David]

Drifting

Without knowing how much wind you had, my guess is that you were oversheeted. In light wind, do not sheet tight. Keep the bow off wind enough to keep your boat moving and work your way upwind. I usually travel all the way windward to keep the boom a little closer to the center line while letting the top of the sail twist out. Trim for the top of your sails; the gradient winds are better aloft in light winds. If you have enough wind to fill your sail, you can go upwind, but cannot point as high as with decent winds.In my opinion, light-wind sailing is much more dificult than heavy-wind sailing.David

 

[David]

Oh by the way

Keel down!

 

[Bayard Gross]

What kind of reach?

Close reach, beam reach, or broad reach?Nevertheless, I too have experienced this occasional tendency of my C-22 to slip sideways, although it is usually due to pinching too strongly into the wind.

 

[Nick]

close reach

it slipped at a close reach, but not as close as it can go (not 45 degrees, more like 55 or 60). By the way, thanks to all for your responses!

 

[ken]

lock down bolt

Had a friend with the same problem he thought the keel was all the way down,but in checking it out we found that the lock down bolt was stopping the keel about half way down.