Catalac Skegs

[Stemar]

One of the skegs on Jazzcat has a little play, so it needs to be refixed. My first thought is that it must be fitted into a socket in the hull. Can anyone confirm this, please?

Plan A is to remove it and refit. Can anyone tell me how best to proceed with the removal? Once it's out, make good the socket and top of the skeg, then use thickened epoxy to make it a good tight fit, but I'm wondering if I should put some wax on the skeg so it isn't actually glued into place, as that would make subsequent removal next to impossible. Would a variation on a theme of keel bolts and a few layers of glass and epoxy round the joint be better?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Neeves]

Steve,

Cannot offer any real help

But if the skeg fits into a socket this would be obvious from the inside as the hull would protrude , internally, to allow the skeg to be inserted. It might better lead to how the skeg is attached. We have mini keels and they are simply glassed flush with the hull. Our keels are sacrificial - we can lose them without it impacting water tight integrity.

If your transom is sealed (as ours is but the compartment is aft of the rudder (and we have no skeg) then it would do no harm (that I can think of) to drill an inspection port to access the compartment to identify if it is dry. You could fit those spin out water tight covers if you drill the hole to the appropriate size with a hole saw. We have had no problems with the water tight transom compartments but did have a leak at a stanchion in one bow sealed compartment (which has a sealed water tight panel bolted in place).

Jonathan

 

[Stemar]

I have access to the hull above the skeg, and it's flat, but I've no idea how thick it is. Checking that will be on the list for my next visit in a day or two. These skegs are structural in that they support the rudders, but they're only a couple of inches or so thick, so I hope there's something more substantial than a couple of layers of GRP!

 

[jwilson]

AFAIK early Catalacs had no skegs at all, though some have since been owner-modified to fit similar-looking ones to the later boats. These retro-fitted skegs could be of all sorts of construction.

 

[Boathook]

If it is an early 8m I suspect that the skegs are bolted on and sometimeswith some resin as a bedding. To find out would mean removing the floor in the rear locker and I suspect the void underneath is full of water. I fitted round inspection hatches on my 9m so that I could keep an eye on skeg bolts and water ....
At the forward end of the locker there is possibly around 100mm gap.

 

[C08]

I know a couple of people who have lost a skeg on a Catalac 8M and my understanding (maybe wrongly) is that they were deliberately not heavily bolted on and were intended to be sacrificed rather than pulling out a big hole in the hull in the evemt of a heavy impact on the skeg/rudder. The bottoms of the lockers are quite thin sheets of GRP and will cover any fixings. The two people who lost their skegs were adamant when I talked with them about it that there was there was no physical bolting or screws on their skegs. I also recall a conversation I had with John Lack who years ago sold skeg mouldings and I think he confirmed the sacrificial nature of the constrction.

 

[Mister E]

The skeg has a shoulder at the top that fits in a recess in the Hull. The bottom of the wet locker is not the Hull, there is a void between the two.
You need to remove the rudder then clean off all the antifouling and paint. You will then see the join.
I then used a multi tool to cut around the join.
A lot of moving the skeg from side to side plus about 4 wood chisels bashed in and the skeg eventually came away. The fiberglass had not been properly wetted out.
I then drilled 5mm holes in the Hull to drain the void.

When dry the Skeg was fitted using thickened Epoxy and some Jack's to push it back up.
Make certain you used lots of Epoxy so that it squeezes out all the way around.
Pm me if I have not explained properly how ours was repaired.

 

[Boathook]

I know a couple of people who have lost a skeg on a Catalac 8M and my understanding (maybe wrongly) is that they were deliberately not heavily bolted on and were intended to be sacrificed rather than pulling out a big hole in the hull in the evemt of a heavy impact on the skeg/rudder. The bottoms of the lockers are quite thin sheets of GRP and will cover any fixings. The two people who lost their skegs were adamant when I talked with them about it that there was there was no physical bolting or screws on their skegs. I also recall a conversation I had with John Lack who years ago sold skeg mouldings and I think he confirmed the sacrificial nature of the constrction.

John Lack fitted the ones on my boat and they are bolted in place.

 

[C08]

It sounds a sensible retro-fitting approach to recognise the limitations of just glueing on the skegs with epoxy and bolting also. My conversation with JL was about him making some skegs for me but he had ceased doing Catalac mouldings at that time. I mentioned that I would probably make some in marine ply and he warned me about making them too strong as they were deliberately made on the flimsy side so as to break before causing hull damage in the event of heavy grounding at speed etc.

 

[Stemar]

Thanks, everyone.

It's a 1984 boat. I would guess that makes it a fairly early Mk2, with the fixed rudders.

I'm inclined to think that cutting through the locker floor is my next step to see what's going on. Bolts? No bolts? In either case, it seems the skeg needs to come off to be refitted properly, so off with the rudder, then locker floor, then the skeg.

When it comes to refitting, I can see the argument for not making it too strong, but the skeg supports the rudder, so it coming off means the rudder's ripped off too, with serious damage to the transom as well. Fortunately, there's a locker at the stern which is where the damage would be, and that could fill with water without compromising safety, As a result, I'm coming round to the idea that cleaning out the socket and slathering everything with epoxy would be the way to go. I was concerned about possible future removal, but I'm starting to think that there's no reason why I'd ever need to remove it if it's fitted securely.