estimate to restore this keel

Jul 20, 2011
175
1974 Macgregor 22 SoCal - dry storage
looking at a catalina 22, took some pic's. does the keel look serviceable to you? how much do you think it'd cost to restore it? I don't have a lot of tools to unload/upload it, so most likely needs to be all done at a boat yard.
keel4.jpg
keel3.jpg
keel2.jpg
 
Jan 1, 2006
7,588
Slickcraft 26 Sailfish
Search threads for granger who restored a keel in worse shape. Boat yard will cost. It's a lot of hours at the boatyard at their hourly rate. But what am I saying? This is a Catalina thread. At least I'm keeping the thread alive.
 
Aug 16, 2016
61
Catalina C22 Panama City, Fl
See Cloud Diver's resto thread for his '81(i think) c22. Very involved and meticulusly documented. Lots of good info there.

Geoff
 
Last edited:

ambler

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Dec 7, 2013
62
catalina 22 11619 Watauga Lake, TN
The Stingy Sailor also has a detailed description of refinishing a swing keel on a Catalina 22.
https://stingysailor.com/2015/03/21/refinish-your-swing-keel-for-best-performance-part-1-removing-2/

What worries me is this keel appears to have more than just rust as it problems. Your second photo shows where the cable should attached to a fitting threaded into the keel. I don't see the cable or the fitting and the keel appears to be supported by a length of wire reinforced vinyl hose (like the hose connected to the cockpit drains). This is a critical fitting and would need to be repaired. If the bracket or the cable fail while the keel is raised the 600 pound cast iron keel would drop unsupported to stop when the head of the keel impacts the inside of the hull's keel trunk, possibly cracking the fiberglass.

Your third picture shows a metal plate bolted to the head of the keel (with one bolt missing). This is not part of the original keel. The first picture appears to show a makeshift hanger for the brass support rod that passes through a hole in the keel head. This rod is normally up inside the keel trunk supported supported by 2 plates that bolt into the hull. The second section of Stingy Sailor's article (cleaning) has pictures showing how these parts of the keel should look.

It appears to me that this keel has had major damage with makeshift repairs. I would pass this one by. At a minimum I'd want to have the keel removed for inspection as well as inspecting the hull's keel trunk.

The Catalina 22 is a fine boat.. I've enjoyed mine considerably. Good Luck.

Jack Woodside
 
Oct 3, 2011
835
Anam Cara Catalina 310 Hull #155 155 Lake Erie/Catawba Island
You can do SOME keel work yourself, at some point we took our keel off and took it to a machine shop as the hole for the bolt had become egg shaped and needed to be filled in and machined. It also depends a lot on what the top side is/interior is and what they are asking. I had lots of resources to help get ours down and also had access to a boat hoist which made it infinitely easier. As jack said the 22 is a great boat but he has good points.
 
Sep 11, 2013
245
Catalina 25 6106 Lake Erie Metro Park
The keel pin hangers are upside down. I just finished drilling my keel pin hole out and putting the bushing in. More of a giant PITA than a technological challenge. That keel cable set up looks pretty sketchy to me. I'd walk away from that one.
 
Jul 20, 2011
175
1974 Macgregor 22 SoCal - dry storage
thanks guys!
I kept playing what if's. If I fixed the keel (by someone or by myself), I'd have a nice boat, etc. Nah, probably wise to walk away this time.
 
Oct 3, 2011
835
Anam Cara Catalina 310 Hull #155 155 Lake Erie/Catawba Island
Probably a wise deceision, There are LOTS of good Catalina 22's out there, ours was hull #10380, and I think they made 15000 of them. Keep looking, its a good boat!
 

MitchM

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Jan 20, 2005
1,031
Nauticat 321 pilothouse 32 Erie PA
subtract 3500 from the boat price . plan to do a lot of work. (said by one who had similar issues with the swing keel cal 20 of my long ago youth...)
 
Jul 20, 2011
175
1974 Macgregor 22 SoCal - dry storage
So I talked with owner again, he said he oversaw the installation of the keel and there was no space in the hull to insert the hangers, that's why they're below the hull bottom.

The boat is a 1975, is it possible that year or some years have that kind of design?
 
Feb 20, 2011
8,060
Island Packet 35 Tucson, AZ/San Carlos, MX
So I talked with owner again, he said he oversaw the installation of the keel and there was no space in the hull to insert the hangers, that's why they're below the hull bottom.

The boat is a 1975, is it possible that year or some years have that kind of design?
Doubtful.