Restoration of 1981 C-22 swing keel #10580

[$tingy Sailor]

Yep, that's about what mine looked like too before I rebuilt it.

Can't help ya with dual batteries, though. The one works dandy for me since I wired up the outboard to charge it.

 

[CloudDiver]

Looking to go with 2 more for the reason of using two 6V CG2's per Mainsail's article... My price research has found Trojan T-105s for $125 within driving distance, x 2 for $250 is only a little more than what I would pay for a single West Marine or other 'Quality Brand' group 27 deep cycle battery. I dunno, could be overkill really. I'm not planning on having any solar panels or crazy stuff. I think I will wait on that decision until my new electrical system is installed along with the charging set up (from outboard motor and shore) to see if I should just stick with one 12V or go with two 6V in series.

Yep, that's about what mine looked like too before I rebuilt it.

Can't help ya with dual batteries, though. The one works dandy for me since I wired up the outboard to charge it.

 

[CloudDiver]

Procrastination and a new Bronze Thru-Hull

I have been hell-bent on getting my hull flipped over to sand and paint the bottom since I picked up my second engine hoist on CL, or at least I thought I was. I keep side-tracking myself with little projects and have yet to execute the 'flip'. Hopefully this is the last distraction, but well worth the time and effort to have done before I flip and paint.

Looking at other members threads I recognized the importance of having a proper thru-hull rather than the short length of pipe that Catalina just glassed into the hull behind the Volcano. Structurally and corrosion wise there was nothing wrong with mine. But since I'm here in 'dry dock' this is the time to do it.

I cut off the vertical portion of the tube with a sawzall, then the remaining piece glassed into the hull was removed with a 1.25" hole saw. That diameter is just right to get around the tube without cutting into it.

 

[CloudDiver]

First pic, I taped off the bottom and filled the hole with epoxy. Once cured I used my orbital sander to flatten off the top. This step is important because I always want to keep my center located with a pilot hole.

Second pic, after drilling the center pilot hole and making sure my shot was straight down I sanded down the flat spot and smoothed out the hump to get the area ready for new fiberglass. Notice the little void that popped up at 2 oclock. This is fine because I'll fill both holes again anyway.

 

[CloudDiver]

I jumped ahead of myself a little before the last post. After filling epoxy in the hole the first time, making the top flat, and then re-drilling the center pilot hole I had do this to the bottom;
The concave area has to be opened up to 2 inches round and flattened to seat the flange of the thru-hull. I put a longer guide bit in the hole saw to reach the pilot hole and started the round clearance almost up to the epoxy filled area. I used a small cut-off wheel on the dremel to clear off the material from the sides that hole saw left hanging. A small 1.75 inch sanding disc on a die grinder helped flatten the area roughly until I could get a 2 inch Forstner Bit in there which is the best bit to use to get the surface flat. You can see in the pic how thin or broken through the fiberglass gets on the sides of the hump. This pic was taken after grey tinted epoxy was used to fill the pilot hole and the area above was glassed over.

 

[CloudDiver]

Back inside the bilge I used several overlapping layers of 6oz biax tape to strengthen the area and several inches around it. On top of the tape and directly over the hole I used heavily thickened epoxy to build up the thickness I need to eventually sand the top flat where the flange nut will tighten down. I used a simple wall of blue tape to create a small mold. With this done and the top is sanded flat I can re-drill the pilot hole from below and then a 1 inch forstner bit will create the mount hole from the top.

 

[CloudDiver]

And continuing after the finish work I just did;

After I used my orbital sander to square off the top I re-drilled the pilot hole from below. It was easy to spot dead center since I had used white tinted epoxy at first, the filled the previous pilot hole with grey epoxy. With another pilot hole carefully drilled straight up and down I bored the 1 inch hole with the Forstner bit.

It looks like I went a bit high and heavy with the epoxy filler. Test fitting the thru-hull and screwing on the flange left me with only about 5/8" thread exposed. The O.E. Forespar seacock has 3/4" depth on its female thread so I wanted to have about an inch of thread on the thru-hull above the flange nut. I used my Japanese Saw to carefully shave off about a 3/8" slab from the top, then back to the orbital sander to flatten the top again and shape the sides.

 

[CloudDiver]

Here is the finished shape of the new 'box' with the thru-hull mounted hand tight, exactly 1 inch of thread above the flange nut. Why did I make this "box" of epoxy filler? Besides having a flat surface for the flange nut to seat I also wanted to thicken & strengthen the area. Giving the thru-hull a thicker area to bite leaves less unsupported length of cylinder exposed above. So say for example something heavy like a deep cycle battery went for a slide at a deep heel and knocked it... you get the idea. I could glass over the top of this again (which would help fill some of pesky little voids you see), but that would be way over-kill; I think I've over-engineered this enough!

And here again with the seacock turned on hand tight. I mentioned in someone else's thread that I am not hooking up my cabin drain because I don't have the slide out galley. perhaps I'll make a new one next season, but for now the cockpit drains will feed into the T fitting and then this seacock; plain and simple.

 

[CloudDiver]

Oh yeah, and I keep forgetting the money shot! Here is the thru-hull from below. The flange seems to seat pretty flat. There was a little epoxy leak here and there that will be sanded when the hull is inverted but I am fully confident that I will get a bomb proof seal when I bed it with 4200.

This pic is a good transition to the next issue I will tackle, in the pic you'll notice the hole going up to the Volcano tube for the Keel Cable (down in the pic, but forward on the hull from the bronze fitting). See that ugly void around the edge? Yeah, the bronze has been eaten away at its bitter end and I imagine some polyester filler has degraded as well. I'm not cutting this massive tube out and replacing it but I do have a plan to fix this problem. That project will have to wait until I get the hull flipped!

 

[CaptDon01]

Now that's SLICK! Luke, I have a flare tool to install 1 1/4" tubes through the transom for additional cockpit drainage.

Don

 

[CloudDiver]

Don, can you post a pic of that tool? I did get the two piece Marelon thru-hulls for the transom cockpit drains from CD. For the forward cockpit drains I'm just going to replace the grates. They are dirty, but functionally they seem sound.

Now that's SLICK! Luke, I have a flare tool to install 1 1/4" tubes through the transom for additional cockpit drainage.

Don

 

[CaptDon01]

Here you go Luke, I ordered it from West Marine, but I believe it can be ordered from WW Grainger also. 1 1/4" bathroom drain fittings will work also.

Don

 

[hawk232]

have you given any thought to not using the tubes? they seem to give people trouble based on other threads that I have seen. I am planning to just cut the holes then line the holes with biax and seal it up good and call it done.

 

[CaptDon01]

In my opinion, the key to the flaired tubes is solid substrate between so there is no compression, if I use wood to fill the void between the fiberglass, I grind out the wood, coat it with WEST epoxy, then fill the ground out portion with thickened WEST epoxy, insert the tube wrapped in wax paper,(holds the epoxy in place while curing and the wax paper doesn't allow the epoxy to stick). Once everything is cured, trim the tube to the proper length, coat it with 3M5200, place it in the hole, install the flaring took, and finish the job. Wipe the excess 5200, and let it cure. No leaks, strong, no wet wood to rot, looks good, no UV stabilization issues, and will outlast your ownership of the boat. :dance:

Don

 

[CloudDiver]

Test fitting the Keel

Here are some pics from 2 weekends ago;
I test fit the keel and it was a good thing I checked. Before installing the keel spacers I wanted to make sure everything was kosher. good thing I did because there is some rubbing around the thickest area of the keel around the pin. I will fair those areas a little more and probably shave off about 1/16th inch from the inside faces of the bronze keel hangers. the last thing I need is to lower the keel for the first time and have all the bottom paint and barrier coat scraping off.

 

[CloudDiver]

Here is a shot of how the hull sits in my garage now. You can see I have the cherry picker hooked up to the bow eye. I've done a test lift with both cranes, the only thing is that the rear wheels of the forward crane are coming off the floor. I plan on testing this again with some of my heavy nylon straps attached to the tow hooks on the front of my truck. I'll put the truck in my driveway farther down the incline so the straps are tight back and down, keeping the lift from creeping forward or lifting up.

 

[CloudDiver]

Dude... Don't even think about it...

 

[CloudDiver]

Oh no he didn't!

 

[CloudDiver]

You bet your A$$ I did!

 

[CloudDiver]

Prepped and ready for a new Volcano while hull is inverted