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Spirit 23 keel cable conduit blocked

5K views 19 replies 6 participants last post by  mvrscott 
#1 · (Edited)
I'm restoring a North American Yacht Spirit 23 and the conduit pipe for the swing keel cable is blocked near the exit, looks like there may be a piece of cable stuck in there. It was moored in saltwater and unused for a while so probably corroded. I cant push through the block with a snake and I cant pull it out from underneath up in the trunk. Does anyone have suggestions to unblock? I'm thinking about installing a new conduit or cutting the conduit at the access in the cabin floor near the blockage to unblock and reconnecting with a coupling. The conduit seems to be metal in a thick plastic coating.

If I were to choose between leaving the swing keel down or up, which would be best? There are a lot of shoal areas around but enough room to sail in the deeper water here in east central Florida. I will not be trailering.
 
#2 ·
Just cut that old crap out and get some new ss tubing and make a new one like I did.. And fiberglass that in and a new ss cable and be done with it. I don't have any water problems, bilge is dry.

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#18 ·
Just cut that old crap out and get some new ss tubing and make a new one like I did.. And fiberglass that in and a new ss cable and be done with it. I don't have any water problems, bilge is dry.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I am going to have to replace my cable from the winch to the keel, I was wondering how thick is the fiberglass at the point it passes through the hull in the cabin? It looks thick in your photo, where you afraid that this would become a week point in the system? what size ss tube did you run your cable through?

Any easy ways to lift the boat to get to the keel or did you go to a boat yard and have them lift it?

Thanks for any help.
 
#3 ·
Side note, these are centreboard not swing keels so they have no weigh the to them, in fact I have a line tied to the bottom of the cb to pull it towards the bow(down) cause it won't do it on its own. I'll pick it up one day and drill a hole in the side of the cb and pour lead shot in it and cover it with resin. Fix that up real quick.

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#5 ·
Thanks. My tubing enters from the side of the pocket in the trunk.
So you cut out the pocket and changed the tubing entry to the top?
Did you change the entry direction to avoid the chronic broken cables?
Why did you cut out the whole raised pocket, was that to give room under the floor to make the bend before entering the trunk?
What is in photo number three?
 
#7 ·
Yea mine was like that too, terrible design. Makes the cable have to bend down which can put more wear on tubing and cable. Yea I cut it out completely and started fresh. Bent my tubing that way it would run into the seat storage area.
I went from the top so the cable would be directly over the CB and it would reduce stress on the pipe and the CB. Cut it put because I had to cut out the old pipe and I guess was a pulley but it was a bug rusted block. That and with a side grinder, that was the best cuts I could make with the limited space. 3rd photo is the tubing ran through the port seat storage area, I fiberglass it down so when crap was thrown in there it wouldn't mess with the pipe. Also, it keeps the pipe from Moving which will keep the 90* bend from getting stressed and leak.

Is there a fitting or anything on the end of the SS tubing?
No fitting or anything, I think I flared the tubing end. Also, when I attached the cable to the CB I put the bracket on the CB directly under the pipe end so there isn't any unnecessary stress when picking up the CB into the trunk.

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#8 ·
I cut the old stuff out of mine when I had it out last. Put in a new plastic tub to relieve the strain. Unfortunately I did not take any pics of it.

I did not go to the extremes of BoatyardBoy and I have not had any issues, though BoatyardBoy's solution is probably better for the cable in the long run.
 
#9 · (Edited)
If I were to choose between leaving the swing keel down or up, which would be best? There are a lot of shoal areas around but enough room to sail in the deeper water here in east central Florida. I will not be trailering.
i have been sailing mine for over a year with no swing keel installed
if you store your boat on a trailer be sure and read the posts about what happens when the keel is down and gets hung up in the trailer
 
#10 ·
Be careful doing this. The swing keel helps to stabilize your boat when you are going upwind. It provides righting motion. Without it there (or down) your boat will be much tippier and unstable in high winds.

That said, I did not have a swing keel at all on Zippey for the first year I owned her and did not even realize it. The previous owner told me the swing keel was locked down. Ben Lobaugh Online » ZDD: Lucky sailing this summer
 
#12 ·
My understanding about this boat is that there is 1000 lbs. of lead ballast in the shoal keel the centerboard swings into. So even without the board I should still have most of the stability. So there is no safety issue. The only problem I see is not being able to point to the wind as well. The shoal keel looks substantial enough to prevent most of the crabbing.

I managed to snake a wire through the cable tubing but still have a piece of broken cable stuck at the end, still giving it a chance to unclog before installing new tubing.

A new problem I found, and glad I found, is the cockpit drain flexible tubing that drains to the back thru-hull fittings deteriorated to the point I could poke my finger into it. The hose clamps have rusted off the upper connection and the lower can't be removed because of rust. The thru hull fitting don't look great so I will replace them as well as the tubing. IT is not complicated just difficult to access. This could have sunk me. Although this boat does have positive buoyancy as I discovered in the hurricanes of 2004 when another boat adrift put a hole in mine. I was able to bring back up by bailing with a 5 gallon bucket all day.
 
#14 ·
I wouldn't be too confident in upwind without the cb.. It's hardly a shoal keel. It slides more than you think. Before I fixed my cable, the cb was up when I sailed it to my boatyard, it had to stop because it wouldn't go straight. Had to just use the outboard. It really doesn't point at all with it up.

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#15 ·
Having some trouble with the cockpit drain tubing. The corrugated flexible tubing I found comes in one foot sections with a smooth part every foot to cut for a fitting connection. The length I need is a few inches more than the foot section and two feet is too long. The clear kind of flexible tubing that can be cut to any length fits but the bend below the cockpit causes it to kink. I'm thinking of adding a coupling to join the two different tubes. Anyone run into this situation or have a suggestion? Thanks.
 
#19 ·
Hello, currently dealing with this issue as well. The thru-hull fitting on my NA 23 has been replaced once prior but was replaced back in the 80's with an OEM fitting. It originally corroded completely due to salt water, but has lasted this long as it has only been in fresh water since. I wanted to post photos of my current situation and as I work to figure it out. Considering a similar solution to SailRedemption / BoatyardBoy. Thank you for those photos!

Hopefully these photos provide a good idea of what the original design / layout was like.

 
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