San Juan 21 Class Association

Jim Davis in Orlando here, finally stopped lurking on here, and now registered.

My wife Margaret and I joined the SJ21CA a few months ago, and are about 2-months into the rebuild of our '80 MII we picked up this summer in GA. While not new to sailing, we are new to the SJ and to drop keels. Other than suffering from a pretty rough striping job( removed now) the boat was pretty much original including all hardware. The first project when I got her home was to restore and refinish the original tiller(for inspiration during the rebuild months!) We have gutted the interior; re-cored two small deck sections at the chainplates; replaced all teak (could not salvage the original); re-built the original windows with new Lexan; wet sanded and buffed deck, cockpit and hull (to get it to some reasonable baseline condition); replaced the bulkheads; getting ready to paint the cabin lid and start putting back the interior; and now getting ready to float the boat in a couple of weeks to clean up the trailer including replacing(relocating and adding) bunk stands. Carlton was good enough to send me some pics of a few trailers setups (while the boats were in the water at the Nationals). All replacement of thru deck attachments included core removal, epoxy filling, and redrilling the holes.

I am replacing the keel winch cable this week, and have a some questions. It appears that when I jack up the keel (off the trailer)to the fully up position, the keel is still exposed a couple of inches level with the hull, and assume that is typical? My gut feeling is that the keel is not going to retract to that fully up position with the winch. I broke the cable trying to do so while tinkering around with everything the day we brought her home. Perhaps when in the water and wet, and with some momentum it will come up easier to full up? I have installed a window in the keel housing cover to be able to see what is going on.

Also the fiberglass at the pin/bolt locations in the keel housing walls has been abused and I need to cut out previous bad repairs and replace with new glass and pin sleeves. Is there a known supplier for the replacement locking pin assembly that I see used in the Tommy Solomon Restorations SJ project boat? Or do I need that level of replacement?

Also I do not see that the keel pin locations will engage the keel to hold the keel in the up position, just engage to keep the keel from retracting accidentally (the original keel operation label is pretty much gone and I will print one off from the file on the site).

That is about it for tonight. BTW we did not get any acknowledgment from our membership request form and payment sent in June. Perhaps someone can let us know if we have been accepted into the fold? We are looking forward to meeting everyone at Fleet 29!
Thanks in advance for followup.
Jim

Hey there Jim,

Welcome to class, glad to have you aboard! I'm not a member of the national association so I'm not sure what protocol there is for acknowledging new members. But, I doubt you're not in the group just because you haven't been sent a welcome letter:)

Yes, it's typical that the Keel won't fully retract, if it's more or less parallel with the hull, you're good to go. Don't try to pull it farther, as you can potentially rip the keel horn that your cable attaches to off the keel itself. Lucky it was just your cable:)

Look up the resources section of the main class assocation, it will have all the links to the information you need wrt offical suppliers and parts.

You're correct, no keel pin hole while in the up position afaik. In Fleet 1, we just raise the keel, throw the boat on the trailer, then lower the keel back onto the keel board so it can move a bit while trailering and not stress the keel horn, or winch, etc.

Good Luck, and Welcome!

Later
Christian

Hi Jim,

We just bought a '76 MK 1 and put it in the water for a couple of days this week. We are also reworking the trailer and I was wondering about the pictures you mentioned. We are looking for ideas since the bunks we have now are not doing a proper job. How can we get these pictures?

Our boat sailed well but took on a little water from the keel trunk hull interface. It was the first time we have flown a spinnaker with just 2 people but it worked fine even with 20 kt gust.

Good luck with your boat.

L & R

Christian, thanks for your help. I think I found part of the problem on the broken cable, it was only 1/8" and I think I read a previous post that the cable should be 3/16.
So, in the two keel down positions does the locking pin engage an actual hole in the keel, or does it just nest in a recess in the top of the keel? I could not find a pic of a keel anywhere. I will see it when I dunk the boat and drop the keep next weekend hopefully.
thanks, Jim

L&R, I will send you the pics asap, but they are on my work computer(oops-sorry boss)
Jim

Hi, Jim and Margaret, Welcome to the Class Association. Your acceptance letter should be along soon. Aggie and I will enjoy spending time with ya'll tomorrow at the Fleet 29 Bar-B-Que / beer / party / meeting. There will be lots of people to answer questions and boats to look at. Glad to have ya'll aboard.
Carlton and Aggie

Jim, there are holes in the keel that it engages in.

have fun tomorrow!

Later
C