as i noted with my trailer issues in another post. I did finally get a chance to sail my new old 1979 Cat 22. I bought it bargain-basement at the end of the season last year, a strategic decision to save money but then spent the entire winter dreaming about sailing my new boat. As somebody who grew up on the beach in Southern California boats of been in my life and I lived on sailboats in Northern California for over 20 years till my kid was five months old. But having three kids put a reset on the length of my boat and I'm back up to 22 feet now 18 years later. We wanted to be able to camp on the boat and explore the thousand Islands so the Catalina 22 seemed perfect.
It was an interesting experience for a first timer dropping the keel. I rebuilt the winch and added 2 1/2 inch exhaust pipe welded in to increase the diameter. It all worked very well but it seem like I was cranking forever waiting for the keel to be all the way down. I sailed with the cable singing wildly then decided I didn't have it all the way down so lowered it till the sound went away then tightened it just a little bit. It was a good stiff 12-15 kts of wind and that extra little bit really made a difference.
The sails turned out to be a little more worn than I expected. Material's in decent shape but the leeches are worn. I may try adding leech lines but I think new sales are likely going to be a dream sometime down the line. Likely will cost more than I paid for the boat even used.
I have to say that she was delightful to sail, relatively easy to single hand and much faster than my old very fast 16 foot wood boat. I was especially impressed at how high she seem to point.
Still a lot of work to do, of course the rigging stretched like crazy since I don't think the boat is been sailed in over 10 years although three owners invested money in gear during that time with the dream of sailing, none of them ever sailed it.
So that's my story, I had completely forgot how utterly awful doing a bottom job is and underestimated how much work. Then there was the pressure wash and final scrub down inside and out to get the old owners out of the boat; so I've been sore for two weeks after stripping it down to the hull and starting over. Hopefully the worst is behind me and it will be a summer of smooth sailing.
Cheers
Mark
It was an interesting experience for a first timer dropping the keel. I rebuilt the winch and added 2 1/2 inch exhaust pipe welded in to increase the diameter. It all worked very well but it seem like I was cranking forever waiting for the keel to be all the way down. I sailed with the cable singing wildly then decided I didn't have it all the way down so lowered it till the sound went away then tightened it just a little bit. It was a good stiff 12-15 kts of wind and that extra little bit really made a difference.
The sails turned out to be a little more worn than I expected. Material's in decent shape but the leeches are worn. I may try adding leech lines but I think new sales are likely going to be a dream sometime down the line. Likely will cost more than I paid for the boat even used.
I have to say that she was delightful to sail, relatively easy to single hand and much faster than my old very fast 16 foot wood boat. I was especially impressed at how high she seem to point.
Still a lot of work to do, of course the rigging stretched like crazy since I don't think the boat is been sailed in over 10 years although three owners invested money in gear during that time with the dream of sailing, none of them ever sailed it.
So that's my story, I had completely forgot how utterly awful doing a bottom job is and underestimated how much work. Then there was the pressure wash and final scrub down inside and out to get the old owners out of the boat; so I've been sore for two weeks after stripping it down to the hull and starting over. Hopefully the worst is behind me and it will be a summer of smooth sailing.
Cheers
Mark
