Catalina 22 Swing Keel Restoration - An Overview

This time last year I was in my shop every night working on rebuilding the swing keel for a Catalina 22 sailboat. The project actually started in July of 2015 with dropping the keel out from underneath the boat and bringing it home.

I took quite a few pictures as well as several hours of video at various points throughout the process. I bought an arc welder and learned a little bit about arc welding. I refreshed my filler putty body work skills. and did a whole lot of grinding.

My take away from the whole effort, USE SACRIFICIAL ANODES! Periodically over the next while I'll post an installment and share what I learned and what I did wrong in that stage of the project.

In the meantime, here are some more pictures from various stages of the project.

 Everything I'd welded on is cracking off...

 Tucked into bed for the night, to let it cool slowly and hopefully prevent more cracks.

 Pre-heating before welding, another effort to prevent cracks.

Fairing.

And more fairing.

And still more fairing.

Turning it over, using an engine crane.

Hanging it back where it belongs.