Sailing and restoring "Avalon" - 1984 C-22 #12640

Mar 31, 2019
64
Catalina 22 12640 Rose City Yacht Club
Hi all,

I've seen a few other threads like this one, so I'd thought I'd start one about my 1984 C-22 swing keel, hull number #12640. I've learned so much from reading other similar threads.

I purchased her in March of 2019 from the previous owner who had owned her for 30 years. The owner for the first five years is unknown and lost to history. (Here's a photo from the day I bought her.)


The PO did a good job with maintenance and upkeep, but kept the boat pretty well stock otherwise. Included in the sale was the full set of original cushions in immaculate shape, and a 2013 Shoreland'r trailer.

So far I've completed the below list of improvements:

1. Quick release levers on the forestay and forward lower shrouds, with quick release pins + lanyards. (Catalina Direct)
2. AGM Battery and charger (West Marine)
3. Boom topping lift (Catalina Direct)
4. New Windvane (Catalina Direct)
5. VHF Antenna + coax kit (Catalina Direct)
6. VHF Radio (West Marine)
7. New battens for mainsail (Catalina Direct)
8. Cotter pin wraps for turnbuckles, aka scar pins (Catalina Direct)
9. New dock and spring lines (Catalina Direct)

Future upgrades I'm aspiring to complete:

1. Bimini
2. New steaming light + deck light (both currently not working)
3. Mastgate
4. New rudder and tiller
5. New mainsail outhaul
6. Tiller stay
7. Stanchion mounted grill
8. New mainsail
9. New electrical switch panel

The most interesting project so far was the new wind vane + VHF antenna installation, followed by the boom topping lift. I say interesting because both projects required drilling the mast and the boom, and that was a first for me. I'll add some pictures and details in subsequent posts.

- Andre
 
Last edited:
May 23, 2016
1,024
Catalina 22 #12502 BSC
Andre, welcome & boat looks great...
You are WAY ahead of the curve with what you've done! Post more pics and go sailing, tis the season!
'84 #12502 here, much in common!
 

AaronD

.
Aug 10, 2014
723
Catalina 22 9874 Newberg, OR / Olympia, WA
Wow - that's a pretty boat and an impressive list! Looking forward to meeting you and seeing Avalon in person! :)
 
Mar 31, 2019
64
Catalina 22 12640 Rose City Yacht Club
Masthead VHF Antenna and New Wind Vane

Parts & tools:
  1. VHF masthead antenna kit from Catalina Direct
  2. Windex 15 antenna mount wind vane from Catalina Direct
  3. Impact driver and titanium drill bits
  4. Anti-galling compound
  5. 50' steel fish tape
  6. Lots and lots of zip ties
This was one of three projects I aimed to complete with the mast lowered. With the mast down, I removed the bolt that holds the "truck" at the top of the mast. I immediately ran into two unexpected challenges:
  1. The CD antenna kit says to choose a location to affix the mounting bracket on the side of the mast which doesn't interfere with the upper shrouds. There was no reasonable spot I could find, so instead I enlarged one of the three holes in the provided mounting bracket so that it would fit the masthead bolt. This ended up being a blessing in disguise since it meant three less holes I had to drill in the mast!
  2. My mast does not have a conduit. Instead, I decided to follow a trick I'd seen posted elsewhere to keep the coax from banging inside the mast. I affixed three zip-ties in opposing directions to the coax every couple of feet to act as "fingers" that keep the coax centered in the mast and hopefully not banging. Time will tell.
From here it was a matter of drilling the 1/2" hole in the mast for the coax to enter, and installing the provided rubber grommet. Then I fished the length of the coax through the mast from the bottom to the top using the fish tape, through the upper grommet, attached the PL259 connector, and finally attached the coax to the antenna. I then drilled the other 1/2" hole in the mast for the coax to exit at the bottom, and similarly installed a grommet and fed the coax through it. Voila!

With help, I hoisted the mast back up, and did a test connection of my Standard Horizon GX1400 radio. Within a few minutes of listening to channel 13 I heard a boat talking to a bridge operator several miles away. So cool!

Full disclosure: I didn't totally complete this project. It was getting late in the day and I could sense I was starting to make mistakes, so I decided to hold off drilling the deck to run the coax into the cabin. Right now the coax is going through the forward hatch until I can get back to the boat to finish the project. :doh:

Here's a photo of the finished product:

(The apparent bind in the coax is just an artifact of the angle and zoom of the photo. It's a smooth bend into the grommet.)

I am a little concerned about the coax chaffing on the starboard upper shroud, but in the end I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out.

- Andre
 
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Rillo

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Apr 21, 2019
17
Catalina C22 Bear Lake
Andre, I’m a new C22 owner too. Your list looks a lot like mine. I am very happy with the Mastgate that I installed and 2-line reefing. If your area is prone to sudden gusts, I can’t say enough for a quick reef from the cockpit.
 
Mar 31, 2019
64
Catalina 22 12640 Rose City Yacht Club
Thanks for all the introductions and encouragement!

This next project took < 2 hours total and it's worth its time in gold.

Boom Topping Lift

Parts & tools:
  1. Boom topping lift kit from Catalina Direct
  2. Impact driver and titanium drill bits
  3. Rivet gun and 3/16" aluminum rivets
  4. Hammer and strike
  5. Two beers
When the mast was lowered for the antenna project above, I also attached the stainless steel wire portion of the boom topping lift kit next to the backstay at the masthead. The remaining work was to drill six holes in the boom, two each for a block and an eye strap on opposite sides of the boom as close to the end as possible, and two more for a cleat halfway up the boom on the bottom. I did a lot of reading on the forum about various ways to secure parts to the boom, and I concluded aluminum pop rivets were the way to go.

After downing a "courage beer", I measured and marked my drill points with the strike, took a deep breath, and started drilling. Once a hole was drilled, it was immensely satisfying to pop a rivet in place and see such a secure connection.

Here's a photo of the finished product. The eye strap is on the port side of the boom opposite the block, and the cleat is further forward on the bottom of the boom, out of the frame of this picture.



When I went to run the line through the block, I noticed that the wheel (?) in the block is off center a bit, which made me wonder if I installed the block backwards. Oh well, it works just fine as is, and it's SO nice not having to deal with the original pig tail while hoisting or lowering.

- Andre
 
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Mar 31, 2019
64
Catalina 22 12640 Rose City Yacht Club
I took two friends out sailing on the Columbia yesterday and had an amazing day. They’d never sailed before, so it was fun watching them settle into the routines and relaxation. I was busy navigating and instructing which left little time for pictures, but here’s one I snapped. On a clear day Mt Hood is large in the distance, but this day it was obscured by clouds. If you zoom in below the boom lift line in the cleat, you can just make out her snowy western flanks.
64DBD18E-72B0-4186-AC98-D55E26CBDDFA.jpeg

- Andre
 
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AaronD

.
Aug 10, 2014
723
Catalina 22 9874 Newberg, OR / Olympia, WA
Andre stopped by today; having now met him in person, I can vouch for him as a truly great guy! (and not only because he bought a few spare boat parts from me).

But I'm afraid I may have corrupted another innocent into a rigging geek. We worked on a dyneema adjustable backstay for Avalon; I wish I had a picture of the grin on his face as we pulled the bury into a splice. :)
 
Mar 31, 2019
64
Catalina 22 12640 Rose City Yacht Club
Thank you, Aaron! You, your family, and your boat were all lovely to meet in person.

Consider me totally corrupted. Mission accomplished? :)
 

gdudik

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Oct 25, 2017
87
Catalina 22 Vancouver, WA
You two need to come down to Tomahawk Bay marina and hang with fleet #20 sometime. 6 cat 22s racing every Thursday night thru the summer.
 
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Mar 31, 2019
64
Catalina 22 12640 Rose City Yacht Club
I took a coworker and her boyfriend out for an evening sail this weekend on the Columbia - it was hot and calm until about 7:00pm when the evening (diurnal?) winds kicked up and gave us about two hours of gorgeous evening sailing. Here's my newly minted crew helping douse and secure the genoa before we turned back to the marina. Mount Hood is in the background framed by the starboard shrouds. I love teaching folks how to sail for the first time. It's so much fun watching them catch the sailing bug. Also seen in this photo are my new halyard lines. Green for main, red for head. Makes it so much easier for both captain and crew to remember which is which! That terribly faded vang line is next to be replaced.

 
Apr 11, 2017
571
Catalina C22 Solomon's Island, MD
Need more #PNW representation in photos ;) gotta get our licks in before the Floridians make us feel jealous all winter.
I don't know - that thing looks a little like Krakatoa from that angle to me. Dang impressive sight though-
 
Mar 31, 2019
64
Catalina 22 12640 Rose City Yacht Club
Our First Overnight

It's been a goal of ours to try overnighting on the boat and the stars aligned this weekend to give it a try, along with our three dogs. (The dogs are all on the smaller side, so it's not as cramped as it sounds.)

We sailed on the Columbia for a couple hours and tied up on an island dock to enjoy twilight and give the dogs a chance to take care of business. Between some loud dock parties, and the fact that we tied up in a spot that exposed us to wave chop bouncing against the dock, at 10:30pm we decided to shove off and motor about 500 feet down river to a quieter location and anchor for the night. Thankfully, between the glow of lights from Portland and lights from houses along the river, we had enough light to discern land from water.

I dropped the anchor, 8' of anchor chain, and 150' of rode in roughly 15ft of water fairly close to shore. Probably overkill, but I figured for our first overnight, more was... more. After setting the anchor, I sighted the shore for about 10 minutes to convince myself we weren't dragging, and tucked everyone into bed around 11:30pm. I slept in the V-berth with one dog, my girlfriend slept on the port berth, and two dogs slept on the starboard berth. (One crawled into the quarter berth and made a den, which was pretty funny.)

It was a great night's sleep on a quiet and calm anchorage, and I was thrilled to wake up and find our boat where we left it the night before. We literally hadn't moved an inch. Having the current to help keep the boat from swinging around was great, too.

And, the companionway and forward hatch bug screens we bought through SBO were fantastic. Being able to keep both open, along with a Caframo Sirocco II fan, meant we had cool fresh air all night. I also replaced the old PortaPoti with a Dometic SaniPottie 975MSD, which was used several times through the night and morning. (It's currently not plumbed for pump-out...)

Here's a photo of the morning sunrise at 5:41am, as captured from my phone held up through the forward hatch from the v-berth.

IMG_1816.jpg


- Andre
 
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AaronD

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Aug 10, 2014
723
Catalina 22 9874 Newberg, OR / Olympia, WA
That sounds awesome, Andre! Anchoring in the current for your first overnight - you're gutsier than me!

Sounds like you have a better ventilation solution than we do. Our system very high-tech - a roll of duct tape propped in the forward hatch, holding it open about 3". :) (and a mushroom vent in the stern, but I doubt that does all that much without a fan to pull air through).

Did the dogs stay on the boat this time?
 
Mar 31, 2019
64
Catalina 22 12640 Rose City Yacht Club
Thanks! I'm happy to report we didn't need to perform any dog overboard drills this time.

Gutsier, or over-confident in my abilities as a sailor? It's a fine line. :biggrin: But, I saw the current as a net benefit, in that it would keep us from swinging around, and if we did drag (or god forbid go loose entirely) I picked a spot where we'd run aground on shoreline that facilitated safe egress. I guess I'm saying, I appreciated the predictability the current brought as to which way we'd go if things went south west.

And I can highly recommend these bug screens SBO sells, especially the companion way screen.

- Andre
 
Mar 31, 2019
64
Catalina 22 12640 Rose City Yacht Club
A Late Summer Day of Sailing, and My First "Oh Sh*t" Moment

For the past several weeks the weather has been pretty heinous in this region of the PNW, limiting opportunities to get on the water for a fair weather sailor like myself. This Saturday we caught a break in the weather and I took my Dad out for a sail. He was visiting from Buffalo, NY, where we used to take our Sailfish out on Lake Erie a million years ago when I was young. Life changed, I moved away, etc, so we hadn't sailed together since. It was neat to reconnect over old memories. We started out in 3-5kts of wind, but ended in a steady 12kt breeze..... until the mainsheet fiddle block connected to the traveler decided to release itself.

Here's a photo from before our day came to an abrupt end:
IMG_0104.png

The rest is a short story. The shackle screw pin that keeps the mainsheet fiddle block attached to the traveler unwound itself and let go. Thankfully my Dad still has quick reflexes; as soon as it let go he grabbed the boom to prevent it swinging out. We were close hauled heading upwind, so it was easy to turn into irons so he could continue to hold the boom. I quickly started the engine and kept us headed into irons. Dad grabbed the helm and I ran forward to lower the mainsail and we called it a day. Not a big emergency, but it was the first time something broke underway. I'm happy how we handled it, and I'm going to use some seizing wire to keep that screw pin in place in the future.

Here's to learning something new, about our boats or ourselves, every time we go out.

- Andre
 
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