Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Catalina 22

Our C22 had a Catalina swim ladder on the transom. I ordered and installed that myself. I also installed one on the C25 and C27. As part of the safety process there also needs to be a way someone in the water can get that swim ladder down. No big deal if you are at anchor and jumped over the side on purpose. A removeable ladder works just fine in this instance. A VERY big deal if you have fallen over the side and need to get back aboard. I added lengths of line to the ladders so you could reach up and yank the cord to deploy the ladder. The Islander 28 had locks on the ladder, basically hinged levers that were attached to the fixed rails on either side of the ladder and came down like fingers around the ladder to keep it from coming down. They also had small loops welded to those locks for trip lines which I installed. By pulling down on the trip line the locks would flip up and the ladder could hinge down. Our friends with a Cape Dory 25 made their swim ladder out of teak. It was a beautiful thing, attached to the transom, hinged in the middle to flip down then down again with steps into the water. The Island Packet has a similar setup with a double hinged ladder. There is a lifeline that spans the space on the aft rail where the ladder stores in the up position. The PO of our boat threaded that lifeline through the ladder and secured it with a pelican hook. Anyone in the water trying to get back on board would be in the water for a long time. That ladder is now held in the up position by a section of velcro strap that easily comes loose. There is a section of line attached to haul the ladder down out of the stored position.

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