Tanzer 22 drop keel won't drop

[Wrigs]

My 1976 Tanzer 22 sat on the hard for 5 years before I got it. The drop keel will not drop down. How do I get it to work properly? It is possible that it has rusted in place and won't lower?
Any help or ideas greatly appreciated.

[Jim Cate]

I don't know how much clearance there is in the Tanzer keel trunk, but yes, it is possible that the iron keel has rusted. The rust has greater volume than the parent metal and could have expanded to the point of jamming the keel in the trunk.

A tricky thing to remedy... is the boat on the trailer or in the water?

Jim

[Wrigs]

It is in the water.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Wrigs

It is in the water.

Hmmm... makes working on it kinda hard! We don't know where you are located (so you might fill out your profile info, please) but getting her out and lifted so that you can get at the keel area may be required. Seems like you will either need to lever it down from the bottom or drive it down from the top, and neither can easily be done in the water. Unless the access that the lifting pennant goes through would allow you to put some sort of drift in and pound on the top of the keel... I just don't know enough about the Tanzer to guess. IIRC, I could have done something like this on the Catalina 22 I had about 50 years ago.

Wish I could be more helpful...

Jim

[KenKo]

Hi, I’ve had a similar issue with a drop down keel on a Paceship 23. It might be similar, in which case undoing the cap on the tube that houses the pulley system that raises and lowers the keel from the trunk and inserting a sectional, screw together rod (rescued from a trashed pole lamp), setting it on top of the keel I and pounding on the rod has worked. Depends of course on how “frozen” it is. Mine occurs occasionally after winter storage. After freeing it, I don’t completely raise it after sailing. Good luck.

[John DeLong]

We addressed the same problem last year.


Initially we used an old pruning saw blade inserted in the gap between the cb and trunk to see if a shell or barnacle were fouling - be careful to loosen the pennant ony slightly as the cb is solid iron and weighs maybe 75 lbs; so you don't want it crashing down if it lets loose. We also tried to loop a line over the back end of the cb and lever it down.



We were unsuccessful at freeing it in the water and ended up hauling the boat and put on high stands with double blocking of the keel fore and aft of the c/b to allow for a reciprocating saw to be used - again, be careful. We also removed the pin and finally freed it.


We removed the scale with a cold chisel on an air hammer, wire wheel and nitric acid and then put 5 coats of epoxy primer, faired with epoxy and then painted with bottom paint. We used circles of melamine centered on the pin to act as a washer between the cb and trunk walls - to inhibit growth and scale and decrease friction. It needed a new bushing to securely hold the pin through the board and we replaced the pennant at the same time.


We tried to clean up the trunk and coat it as well though this was to access.


It has worked well for 1 1/2 seasons so far... (touch wood).


Good luck!

[johnnykeylargo]

I had this problem with my old Chrysler 22. When we bought it, it had been sitting on the hard for a number of years. A couple of gentle raps with a sledgehammer immediately freed it up.

[GregW1309]

I managed to jam the centerboard in my Tanzer 22 when I forgot to raise the center board before putting the boat on the trailer. Jammed the cable pendant between the centerboard and the keel. Impossible to budge. Had to pull the boat out, put on stands and pry out the centerboard with a long lever, and replacing the pendant.

[WhalahSailah]

My Tanzer 22 from the mid 70's had a fiberglass liner inside the centerboard trunk that delaminated causing the same problem that you're having. I removed the fiberglass with "a shingle ripper" that looks something like a 2' long chisel, one long Saturday, on land, when I was a lot younger. Some good news is that it might just shake loose with some vigorous sailing and it doesn't sail that bad with the centerboard up. I love the Tanzer 22 !

[Alita49DS]

Nice to know that something with my surname has trouble getting it down rather than ... woops.