Strange keel cable hookup point ? - Swing Keel Cat22Sport

May 24, 2026
2
Catalina 22 Sport georgian bay
after winter storage, I was checking out my C 22 sport for spring cleanup, and had never really looked at the swing keel before… it’s kind of a brand new boat, was in the water at the marina when I got it.

I noticed some damage from a small metal bracket that seems to be attached to the lead swing keel, where there’s a portion of the bracket where the cable attaches for the winch to raise, but there’s this additional bracket with mounting hole in it that’s attached to effectively nothing…. and this part of the bracket seems like it’s not designed to be there because it’s colliding with the underside of the Keel-slot in the hull of the boat…

Looking on the Internet, I found tons of pictures of how non-Catalina 22 sport cast iron heels are attached by what looks like an eye hole and a clevis to the cable directly, and there is no bracket, but looking at the images that I’ve attached to this post you’ll see my keel, which should be lead encased in fibreglass, has this two lobed bracket on it with two holes for attachment points… the cables attached to the forward, bow side attachment point, and the transom side attachment point is just like this extra little ear that really doesn’t have a cavity to move up into… so it is gouging through the gelcoat

Does anyone else with a Catalina 22 sport have the same keel set up?
Is this the way it’s supposed to be?

It seems like there should be an extra cavity for this other part of the bracket to move up into but there isn’t so the keel can’t possibly go any higher due to interference between this extra bracket piece and the bottom of the hull

Is this even the right keel for the boat?

It’s effectively a brand new C2 2 sport that somebody bought and then fell ill and had to sell at the marina and I picked it up… so I don’t have history on this boat and I’ve never seen in real life a swing heel Catalina 22 underneath so I’m just looking for some verification that this is either
a) normal but a stupid design that c22 Sports have
b) super weird and unexpected and maybe this keel is from a different boat or something (seems super unlikely since it was purchased effectively as a brand new boat by the original owner)
c) normal but there’s something wrong with how the keels mounted up, or the cables on the wrong mounting area of thr two-hole bracket… etc

Please Internet hive mind, ask me a reassurances or other information to help me understand what I’m looking at here
 

Attachments

Sep 30, 2013
3,681
1988 Catalina 22 North Florida
Pics with the keel lowered another inch or two would help. The cable appears to be mounted in the right spot, centered in the volcano tube? I have no experience with Sports, but that extra eye aft of the cable sure looks like it shouldn't be there. It prevents the keel from fully nesting in the trunk, and it appears to be knocking the gel coat off.

Just a preliminary guess, but I'm already thinking about grinding that sucker off.

But again, I know nothing about the Sport.
 
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Likes: rcanthony
May 24, 2026
2
Catalina 22 Sport georgian bay
You might be on to something gene… And I mean, who doesn’t love using an angle grinder ? :D