length
Dennis, I’m surprised that no one with a 22 has responded to you yet. That may be because they never have taken their cable off to repair or replace it. So I’ll take a shot at trying to help. I used to have a Mac 22 and I am pretty sure the keel is set up the same way on the Venture 222. One end of the cable is attached to a hole through the aft side of the keel, and the other end is attached to the wench. I don’t think the cable length is specified anywhere, but it seems like an easy thing to figure out. You will need enough cable to allow the keel to fully deploy / descend and also have a little bit on the wench spool. My guess would be about 5.5 to 6 feet. If there is currently no cable on the wench you have, get a piece of rope approximately the same diameter as the cable you are considering buying. Attach the rope to the wench and wind it up on the wench. If you can raise your boat high enough to allow the keel to fully deploy, attach it to the keel as well and you can get a better idea of just how much cable you’ll need. Regardless, the cable you buy shouldn’t be any longer than the length of cord it takes to fill up the winch spool. (in case you can’t raise your boat for this) You’ll probably end up with a bit more than you need if you fill up the winch spool with out fully deploying the keel, but it’s easier to cut length off of the cable than it is to add length (new cable). I can’t imagine the length would be any longer than 7 feet. Happy sails, Bruce Cowin Brigadoon M26S
