Electric winch for swing keel, how to use

[alfreddiaz]

I bought my first sailboat, a Catalina 25 Swing Keel. As the title states, it has an electric winch. Pretty simple to operate. To bring up, I hold the toggle switch up till the winch sounds a beep, which I take it to mean it won't come up anymore. Then I back it off a couple inches because that makes sense to me.

My question is on lowering do I just keep going till the cable finally shows some slack, which is what I am doing?

And then do I want to the cable loose or should I have a little tension when the keel if fully extended?

Any advice on dealing with a swing keel would be welcomed. I also need to come up with a way to keep the water from sloshing back up. Was going to get all technical and get a bung from a barrel that would fit just right. But then I realize I could probably just put saran wrap around the opening.

Thanks.

Al

 

[centerline]

the cable can either be loose or snug when sailing...when its loose its quiet but if it has tension on it, it can create a harmonic vibration that can either be annoying, or used as a tool to tell how your sail trim is, as it will "sing" at a higher pitch as the boat moves faster thru the water...

for the water splash thru the keel cable hole, a very coarse sponge works great. but dont stick it so far down the hole that you cant remove it if you should have a knock down and you get a lot of water in the cockpit..