Retractable keel

[Jfyiii]

I sail a,  compass Classic 14 foot cat boat. It has a retractable keel , pulled up with a rope. The  rope needs to be  replaced.

Does anyone have plans for this boat or understand it well enough to draw me a simple diagram of how the keel is hung and how I could get to the rope to replace it.  I'd prefer not to tear of  the woodwork on the top and back is the keel housing if that is possible.

Thank you very much for the help in advance.

[Bruce Mason]

Replacing the pendant on any centerboard boat is common. I don't know the Compass Classic per se, but you just need to lower the CB to get to the attachment point. This might be possible if it's on a trailer, it is with my 14' PC, but it should be readily doable on the water, either diving under the boat or careening it onto the shore at low tide. Usually there is a shackle that you tie to.

A waterproof camera to take a photo of the CB deployed out of the trunk on the water may be helpful to see what you're dealing with.

[johnandcandace]

I just looked at a few photos and adds, for your compass classic 14. It's a nice looking boat.
Agree with previous reply that installing a new pendant should be an easy job.
Whatever you do don't wait until the old pendant breaks. A free hanging centerboard is much harder to remedy and risks damaging the board in shallow water and loading on trailer.
We have changed pendant on a 17' boat by hoisting the boat off the trailer with slings.
We prefer to do work in the dry, rather than diving, or tipping the boat sideways in the water.
Our pendant was attached to the board with a knot in a cross hole. The knot acted like a barrel bolt for attaching bedrails to posts.
Threading the new pendant needs to be thought out, depending on the size of the hole or slot the pendant runs up thru. You may need to use a small cord/string spliced to the old pendant, then the new pendant, to do this.

Below are a couple websites that may give leads:
https://www.catboats.org/
https://areyspondboatyard.com/catboat-14/
good luck

[Bruce Mason]

If Jfyiii is still following this, There's a good chance you can drop the CB on your trailer. Post a photo of your boat on the trailer and let us see if we can help.

For my 14', 600 lbs. boat, I just have to slide it back about a foot. No balance issues, the boat remains happy on the trailer. No tendency to tilt, easy to put safe guards in place if you're concerned.

[Jfyiii]

Bruce

I am still following the replies.

Pictures are below. Any ideas are very welcome.

the trailer is intentionally low to the ground because my local ramp has a  shallow slope.

I am also planning to snake a camera into the hole where the rope comes out to see how it is constructed.

[Bruce Mason]

Yah, it looks like if you can slide the boat forward about 6" on the trailer you'll be able to drop the CB. Can you remove the bow stop? Trailers are very forgiving with their bolt-together construction.

If you can, but still don't have sufficient vertical clearance to access the pendant, consider parking the trailer where you can trench underneath. Shouldn't need much of a trench.

Here my boat was slid back about 12" to get clearance.
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[Jfyiii]

Thanks. The bow stop is movable. I did it last year to get the boat into the garage, boat and trailer were 4" too long.

I'll give it a try to see if I can access the pendant. But I see a couple of constraints.


The front edge of the keel will hit the mid roller. Hopefully the angles will work.

I'm not sure t the keel will drop all the way as the trailer low. I need to repack the bearings so I could just put the trailer on blocks at the same time.

[Bruce Mason]

Another thing that's worked for me is to drop the tongue jack as low as it will go. This raises the stern to its highest point off the ground while on the trailer. Securely block up the stern of the boat and raise the tongue jack to its highest point. As the aft end of the trailer drops, the stern will rise off the trailer, assuming you've removed the transom strap and anything else holding the boat to the trailer.

Now if you block or suspend the boat forward, and lower the tongue jack, the boat will be off the trailer. By suspending the bow from a beam that rests on supports wide enough for the trailer to clear, I can almost take the boat off the trailer entirely, and roll the trailer free. I can if I use hoist forward to gain a couple more inches. Letting air out of the tires might have given me enough.

[Jfyiii]

Bruce
I thought about doing exactly what you describe so that I could remove the hull paint. I'm a little leery of working under a boat not on real boat stands though.

I'll give this all a try later in the,month.

[Bruce Mason]

Agreed, you need to make sure the boat is well supported, whether the trailer is in position or not. As a task, dropping the CB should be quick and not require a lot of force that could dislodge whatever support you used.

I know one PC owner who used to launch his boat on the lawn. It was a Performance trailer with a tilting tongue, but still. I have a Magic Tilt that doesn't, and I'm not about to give my neighbors a show to see if I can pull it off.

[Jfyiii]

Bruce
Well, I moved the boat forward on the trailer to clear the middle crossbar. Then I jacked the trailer up really high

But the front cross bar is still in the way.

So either I pull the boat off the trailer in the water or in a sling.

Before I do that I'm going to get a camera and scope the box to see what I find.

If it looks like this it doable from the top. I might just pull the top of the box off.  I don't mind the disassembly, I just avoid plugging screw holes when pissible.  I'm just not good at it.

Cheers,  john

Pictures below

[Bruce Mason]

You made a good effort! I'm sure you could see if removing that roller would allow the CB to drop far enough. Did you shine a flashlight up the trunk to see if you could make out anything?

I got lucky with this shot up the trunk, the pendant, shackle, and nearby zinc are all in focus. The relections are from the stainless trunk and CB.
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We can't access the board from the top. We have a teak-capped fiberglass cover over a welded stainless steel trunk that's only open at the keel. The pendant passes through a 1/2" tube welded to the trunk, but that's it for access to the CB itself from the top.

Can you make out anything looking down the hole the pendant runs through?

[Jfyiii]

I had someone I work with drop off a Camera snake. Siri I can just slide it down in there and hopefully get a good look.

Hopefully that gives me an idea what to do next.

[Jfyiii]

I ran the camera snake in yesterday and found the pendant runs into a hole in the top edge of the keel then goes down a couple of inches and exits in a hole drilled perpendicular through the keel. It looks like it is knotted off to keep it in place.  This was what I expected to find.

Pictures below. I did get a better look at the knot but no picture.

 I'm going to put the boat in the water, drop the keel as much as possible and take a swim.  Hopefully the knot will be below the hull. 

If the knot is accessible I'll pay a yard to hold the boat in a sling while I replace the rope.

Thanks for all the advice.

[Bruce Mason]

Good plan, you should succeed one way or the other.

Your dog looks like a swimmer, probably doesn't do knots. They never seem to (want to) understand when they could really be useful.
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