1979 spirit 23 new owner
 

how ya all are ?
i just purchased my spirit from paul in MS.
the four hour tow home went fine until i tried to back into my drive way not quite wide enough to back in ,we have ditches in front of our houses here .

so we are having culverts installed to fix that problem .

a few questions to start
swing keel winch mine has like 1/4 inch line on it ,not cable anyone else have there's rigged like this ?

the winch looks like it is ready to collapase from all the rust anyone know a good model for replacement .

this is a pop top model ,the former owner told me you need to lay the mast over towards the bow ,which we did without much trouble .
but looking at it ,it seems like it should be able to laydown toward the stern also which would let me do the board and winch trick . i have seen on youtube.

thanks

welcome,fairly new here myself, still some work to do before I can launch. On the winch,mine dosn't look at all special, I think a small regular boat winch would be more than adequate. Does your centre board raise/lower OK with the 1/4'' rope ? if so I would be inclined to replace it anually or go back to stainless wire.

any idea how the stainless steel wire attaches to the swing keel it's on the trailer no way to see it .
is it treaded through the keel and then held on with cable clamps ?
does it have a loop crimped on and attached with a shackle ?

i am going to take the basic keel boat course in jan . so my boat wont be in the water before that , it's doubtful i will be getting in the water to look at it unless its a emergency .

Hey Ray, check out this page too. It's got some good pictures, and can probably show you want you want to see on the keel without having to pick it up, or get under it.

North American/Spirit 23' Sloop (sailboat) resource page

Glad to see this thread is up.

Paul

1) Swing keels I believe came stock with a cable not a 1/4 line, (How does the line go thru the hull???)
2) I would try & fix it! Use the old parts that you can't buy & buy new parts that match the old rusted ones, ie shop around
3)I lay the mast down AFT but built a collapsible crutch that sits in the cockpit drain holes & attaches to the transom on the table fitting. Make sure the sliding plate under the boom on the mast is all the way up close to where the boom attaches, and also make sure the side stays are not jammed up but pointing AFT.

What is the board and winch trick?? Post a link if you can.

Looks lame to me! Mine is wayyyyy easier than all that.

cool! can you post a video

Sorry the boat is stored for the season with a tarp on it. Remember there are boats north of LA. LOL

I took the rigging off when I first got it and tried to raise it from the back. The angle and height of the pop top makes it nearly impossible. You almost have to have the mast straight up before you can get it to line up with the pin hole on the mast step.