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11 months later and she's finally back together!  5200 in the seam and sealing the bolts.

Damage to the interior wasn't nearly as bad as it looked once the gelcoat was ground away - mostly only skin deep like Eric described.  There was a tabbing failure on the mast step but it might have been old.  There was only one other real crack (about 1:00 in the attached picture) that needed fixing.

Launch is scheduled for Monday and there isn't really time to let the 5200 fully cure and then do a proper taping + fairing job, so I'm going to (mostly) follow Dan's approach of painting it and calling it good enough until the fall.  Except I'll add a layer of putty and/or barrier coat just to be sure water doesn't attack the glass in the meantime.

Thanks again to all of you for holding my hand through this process.  I'm very much looking forward to getting back on the water.  Cheers!

Yes, just trying to confirm the standard out of the box prop for reference.

Confirmed, as far as I know.  My 1990 Mk 1.5 has a 15x9 2-blade.

I'm glad someone explained the CS blade shape; I was very confused why everyone was talking about smaller+shallower props on an M35B than I have on my M25XP!  Although I wouldn't have expected shape to have THAT much impact.  Gearing is also a factor (1.79:1 vs 2.05:1), but the M35 should still have more torque at max speed.

does anyone have a part number to fuse caps I checked catalina direct but didn't come up with anything, In the picture Im missing 2 of the caps.

You might be able to steal one from a replacement fuse holder.  It looks like a 5x20mm, but I can't be sure.  Check your local Marine supply or do a Google search for "panel mount fuse holder".  Worst case, you can replace the whole fuse holder.

Welcome to the joys of wiring!  I'm glad you have friends to help you.

On my 1990, "Steaming light" is the light halfway up the mast that faces forward, which should be on when you're motoring.  "Running lights" is the white light on the stern rail plus the forward red/green, which should be on regardless of whether you're motoring or sailing.  "Anchor light" is at the top of the mast and "Deck Light" is in the same assembly as the steaming light but faces down, toward the deck.  The names may be different but the functions on your boat should match.  Compass and instrument lights are probably tied to "Running lights" but I'm not sure - I don't sail at night much.

For the mast connector:  turn them all on and go see which, if any, bulbs are lit.  Turn them off one at a time to figure out which is which.  If any aren't lighting, grab a voltmeter and unplug the mast connector.  Turn on the broken switches one at a time and probe the contacts to make sure power is getting to the mast.  If so, the problem is in the mast and you have no choice but to climb it or take it down.  The mast connector and all the bulb sockets were corroded when I bought my boat, so nothing worked first try...

+1 to what Ron said.  Heat shrink (the kind with GLUE) over everything (or use the butt splices that come with heat shrink insulators).  From your 1st picture, the wire coming out of the blue butt splice is dark; that is because it's corroded, and you usually have to cut/strip back several inches or more to find clean wire.  Not good.  Contact corrosion is probably why you "noticed that when the were wiggled the lights flickered."  Corroded contacts are not only unreliable, they also make heat and can cause a fire.  No need to panic, especially with low power circuits like lights, but if you find it, fix it!

All threads deserve conclusions, so despite the long delay I am following up with my experiences.  Hindsight being what it is, I should've listened to you all...

Because of the condition of the hardware, antifreeze I couldn't clean from the joint, and a leak that clearly flowed from the aftmost bolts down to the keel and back up through a screw hole where the bilge pump was (formerly) mounted, I went ahead and had the yard drop the keel.  It cost me the whole 2024 season, and may cost me at least some of 2025 too.

• Finding #1:  Good news first.  The bolts were all still fine (phew!)  No signs of "waisting" in spite of how corroded the nuts and washers were.
• Finding #2:  oh s***, when they dropped the keel, the lead didn't cleanly separate from the hull and it delaminated some of the keel stub.
• Finding #3:  after repairs were completed, but thankfully before the 5200 was finally applied, I got a chance to inspect it myself and discovered the delamination event also caused damage visible from the *inside*.    The segment behind the mast step has cracks running all the way around , and the segment behind that also has cracks on the foreward end (more than pictured but hard to get a picture of). 

Long story short I'm still waiting for the internal fiberglass to be repaired.  I'll post back again when I know the extent of the damage (after grinding) and repair job.

Could you provide a quick lesson how to understand what the screen is telling us?

Hi Ken,

Sure!  There are two traces showing, respectively, current and voltage (Y axis) as a function of time (X axis).  Across the bottom is the scale per division of the grid:  2V/div for CH1, 500mV=50A/div on CH2, and 500ms/div (0.5s) for time.

The arrows labeled "1" and "2" on the left side indicate the zero point for each channel.  So at the top left, yellow is 6.2 divisions above the "1" arrow, meaning the battery starts at 12.4V. and dips to approximately 11V (with some ripple) while cranking.  Current meanwhile starts at zero, spikes briefly to about 225A, then oscillates between 220A and 114A at about 5 cycles per second.

The horizontal dashed lines (yellow and white) are "cursors" used for making quantitative measurements.  On the right side you see the "source" is CH2 = current.  So I'm just measuring the peaks and valleys of the blue waveform.  These numbers are displayed in the box at top right:  222A peak, 114A valley, 222-114=108A between the lines.

Finally, the vertical orange "T" marker indicates the "Trigger," i.e. the event that caused the oscilloscope to capture the data - in this case, the rising current signal.

Yes, it is an M25XP.  No, it did not start in 2 seconds.  As I later found out, the key switch was broken and the glow plugs were not getting power.

I would definitely defer to ABYC, but absent guidance I would size the wire for the average current, not the peak.  Even then the tables may be overly conservative because you don't crank long enough for the wire to really heat up.  Voltage droop (3%) should be the deciding / limiting factor, and that depends on wire length.

You gain little if anything by exceeding the standard.  You can see my battery droops to 11V, which is -11% or so.  MCA is spec'd all the way down at 7.2V!  But 4 AWG is 0.25 mOhms per ft.  If the cable is 20 ft (round trip) that translates to an average droop of 0.84V, which is definitely more than 3%.  I guess I'm adding that to my list of winter projects...

Sorry I'm late to the party.  It just so happens I measured mine with an oscilloscope shortly after I bought the boat a year and a half ago     Summary answer is peaks ~220A, but the battery was a little tired so give it some margin.

Here's the capture.  CH1 (yellow) is voltage, CH2 (blue) is current.  My current probe is 10mV/A, so 2.22V is 222A and 1.14V is 114A.  The large ripple is caused by the compression strokes.

Hahaha!

Thanks Ken.

From my simplistic vantage the coolant reservoir appeared to be one of the highest points on the engine, so it wasn't clear to me what if anything would stop it from draining inward.  I confess I still don't have a good mental picture of how it's plumbed inside, but I trust what you're saying.

Before I posted I found plenty of posts about leaking flanges and none about flooded engines, so I guessed it was OK, I just didn't want to make a potentially disastrous assumption.

So much for my planned turtling drills though.  They'll have to wait until I can install a new gasket, just in case.   

Awesome, thank you everyone for the quick help!

Hi all,

I need a little hand-holding.  Is a potentially leaky exhaust flange gasket a risk to the engine, i.e. from coolant flooding the block?

I just replaced my motor mounts yesterday.  While lifting the engine, I had issues with the exhaust riser getting in the way.  After cursing about the extra gasket replacement work I'd be creating for myself, I tried unbolting the flange.  It appears quite new, and the nuts came off easily, but the flange wouldn't budge.  Then I noticed it dripping antifreeze and put on the brakes.  As the rest of you already know, the freshwater coolant manifold is also sealed by that flange, and I didn't drain it first...

I never actually pulled the gasket apart, and was able to stop the leak by re-torquing the nuts.  I was also able to replace the mounts without removing it after all.  My only concern now is whether coolant might be able to find its way back into the engine if the gasket is compromised.  Is a full coolant drain + gasket replacement necessary, or can I just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't start dripping?

Thanks!

I'm currently working on turning mine into a parallel hybrid with the M25XP...slow-tracked while I clear a backlog of other projects.  I previously converted a Hunter 25 to electric and have done a bunch of hull drag and prop calcs for both it and the Catalina.  PM me if you're interested.

Be careful with battery placement as it can affect the trim of the boat.  My old Hunter had a distinct backwards lean with just 72V x 100Ah mounted under the cockpit.

For general motoring, 3-4 kt is a good speed.  Anything more just starts wasting power.   400W of solar charged me during the week and generally kept up with me while cruising - even though I installed an induction stove to replace the portable Coleman.

That said, an electric auxiliary encourages you to use the wind whenever possible.  Motor sailing gains a new relevance.  400W can counteract your morning coffee and getting under way, but would be agonizingly slow without the battery to save it up for shorter bursts. There is still something to be said for a diesel that moves you endlessly in a straight line at 5-7kt when you just want to be somewhere.

Did you crimp the expensive hunks of wire from CD to your engine harness, or did you use thr non-ABYC compliment terminal strip that CD sells?

That burns almost as much as the original harness...

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For the M25XP, the fuel pump should come on with the key switch.

In the original diagram, I believe battery is red and alternator is orange; both are connected via the ammeter and go to "B" on the key switch.  That means "A" / purple is the switched side and the fuel pump should be connected to it.

You should be able to trace the wire from the pump to figure out which end it terminates at.

Err, how do you attach a piccie these days with the new message board layout?

For some reason, it's not available in the "quick reply" at the bottom of the page.  You have to actually click the "reply" button and then there will be a link below the message area.  And if you're on a phone the "reply" button seems to be hidden under "user actions"

Hope this helps!

I assume you have fixed the topping lift? ;-)

Haha!  I wondered if anyone would notice.      Actually, the traveler had come apart and dumped its nylon bearings all over the deck earlier that day, so I dropped the boom to keep it from swaying unconstrained.  I fixed it the next morning but the photo op was gone by then.

Carver's harbor, Vinalhaven, ME last summer - my second voyage in the Catalina.