I was out for a short sail on a lake. I returned to the dock and attempted to raise the keel when the winch handle spun out of my hands. The keel was about 3/4 the way up at the time and wound out to a hard thump. I got the boat back on the trailer and inspected everything. The inside of the keel pocket did not show any cracks, just a rubbing against the fiberglass in the trunk where the keel normally rests when in the down position. I removed the winch, cable, hose and turning ball for a look. I immediately noticed that the winch was mounted at an angle, causing the cable to spool to one side of the drum and overriding at times judging by the broken strands and hard bends. The turning ball wasn't moving and wearing through. The keel pin and mounts don't look affected. The trunk area inside the cabin showed some gelcoat cracking, but my before and after pictures show this area has previously been repaired, I think there's a stop hole drilled and new gelcoat. I'm having a sailboat repair business come out this week to do an assessment before I order a new winch and lifting kit. I'm attaching the before and after pictures in hopes that some other C-22 people can provide me some insight and/or advice on this sort of thing. I have to admit, this was pretty scary. I'm glad I was at the dock when it happened.
Keel Winch Failure 1984 Catalina 22
- Thread starter dano2022
- Start date
You mean the keel trunk that's exposed to the water just above the pin and shoe castings? Where the upper part of the keel makes contact? Is gelcoat cracking in the liner a big deal?
Correct-- the gelcoat cracking you see is A) typical and B) really only exists in the internal pan -- it is not the water facing surface as @Jacktar described
I experienced a similar keel winch failure… the thread below may be helpful for you…
Cheers!
Dave
Keel winch failure... and repair...
Cheers!
Dave
Keel winch failure... and repair...
Thought there were some photos of cut up cross sections: found this one-- shows at least a portion of the cross section of the keel trunk I believe:
That is so cool, the Catalina Direct people said there's about 2 inches of fiberglass there. However, this really shows it. Much appreciated.
And @Gene Neill makes an excellent point -- if you are the recipient of not having a proper brake winch -- having the handle spin out of control is a possibility. "when the winch handle spun out of my hands" should not be a thing.
Here's stamping on the winch.Even if the company that's coming to inspect the boat finds nothing wrong, I'd still float her for a couple days and watch for leaks. Hopefully she's 100% intact!
I'd be very interested in what brand/model/age that winch was.
It appears to be a totally legit winch. Nor does it look all that old. It looks to be the same as this one, by the looks of it: Fulton Winches
I'm puzzled at how/why it failed the way it did!
I'm puzzled at how/why it failed the way it did!
Here's what I found. It looks as there are three things going on; 1. The rachet pawl is worn on one side. 2. The pawl hole is worn by the bushing. 3. The gear teeth on the break face are worn. All combined, there was just enough movement of the rachet pawl that it could slip off between the break face gear and housing, causing a run out. The newer K1050 winches appear to have two rachet pawls, perhaps for this reason.
Attached pictures.
I installed the new winch and lifting kit from CD. During the installation I found that the wire bundle crossed under the old winch mounting plate causing it to push the entire winch assembly up at a higher angle than normal. I moved wire bundle forward of the winch to correct this, since there was not enough slack to run behind.
Attachments
Looks great-- I couldn't get past the wonky by design angle on the cable-- and eventually added a shim to appease my OCD:
I made a shim also, but the bolts were a bit too short. So I went with the original setup. It seems to work very smooth, sea trial this weekend.