Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
Good luck finding it, but remember that a swinger won't right itself from a full or nearly full inversion. Friction will keep the keel in place somewhere beyond 90ยบ, but it will eventually come crashing into the trunk as you go farther.
It'll take a lot more than almost any of us will ever see to roll a C-25 to the point the swing keel falls into the trunk. By the time that happens, a C-25 probably will be sinking due to several factors that limit it to the "coastal cruiser" category--swing, fin, or wing keel. And it has proven to be a capable coastal cruiser--meaning when an ocean storm is moving in, find or stay in port.
By various calculated indices, the C-25 should right itself from a 90+ degree knockdown--unless water enters the "dumpster", which is open to the bilge. Then it might return to upright as it sinks to the bottom. The only time I've heard of that happening was around 25 years ago when 14 (as I recall) partygoers were aboard one on a Colorado lake one night, probably all on deck and the cabintop, outweighing the ballast, and putting the C-25 on the bottom of the lake. Bad judgement, not "stability", sank that one.
--unless water enters the "dumpster", which is open to the bilge.
Dave,
Do you know if the dumpster was meant to be open to the bilge? Mine has been pretty sealed with the only "real" penetration at the bottom for the bilge hose which has been sealed against the edge of the hole since I've owned the boat. When I recently installed the supersub pump and messed with the hose It finally broke the seal and now slowly leaks into the next compartment under the galley sink, which also seems to be sealed off from the bilge compartment. I wonder where water actually comes from to get into the bilge because every single other hold on the boat seems to be separate from each other. I'm going to need like 20 more bilge pumps.[/rant]
But really I thought the dumpster was to be sealed which was why I've been hesitant about cutting a hole to install a 12v vent fan somewhere under the galley sink and installing a vent possibly in the fuel locker. The mildew in the locker has rendered it mostly unusable and I want to take it back for storage.
Dave, Do you know if the dumpster was meant to be open to the bilge?...
Mine was a fin keel, and I don't have it any more so can no longer see what I'm talking about (and therefore might not know what I'm talking about... ), but here's what I remember:
1. Water that leaked from my cockpit scuppers into the area below the quarterberth on one side and the dumpster (sail locker) on the other side all migrated to the "sump"--the molded keel stub to which the lead fin keel was bolted. That's the lowest part of the bilge on the FK model.
2. While there was a plywood bulkhead between the dumpster and the quarterberth, I do not recall that it was sealed to the hull. I ran wires and did some other things down there, and no longer have a clear picture, but my impression was the dumpster was not designed to be a watertight compartment.
Even if the dumpster were water-tight, if the boat capsized to port and the locker opened, having been completely inside it, I suspect it would swallow enough water to seal the boat's doom. The companionway would probably become submerged, and down she'd go. That's why I always kept a padlock, even unlocked, on the hasp for that locker. But I never came close to the situation I'm describing. I'm convinced it would take a 6'+ breaking wave on the starboard beam to get to that point. So I stayed away from those... (You know, "coastal cruiser".)
I have a wing keel and was setting quite comfortable on a fairly breezy day-when all-of-a-sudden I was hanging on to the life line to stay on the boat. Not sure how far over she went but I had about 4 or 5" of water in the cockpit when things settled down and the mast pointed up again. I have been told that Catalina 25's will right themselves quite well even if the spreader gets wet.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.