Dropping the Keel

[tager]

My boat is a 1968 Haida 26. She has 8 stainless keel bolts which I believe are original. The keel is a cast iron fin about 3.5' (4.5' total draft), 1800 lbs. I believe that the bolts go through a flange on the keel at the keel stub, and are embedded in fairing compound. The nuts have stainless backing plates, and go through solid glass.

The keel-hull joint appears fair and none of the bolts are weeping. The boat is in the water.

How much would it cost to replace 8 bolts at a DIY yard? I would probably also do a light sanding and apply 2 coats of ablative at the time.

This is in Seattle.

[Gene T]

It kind of sounds like you could change them without dropping the keel. You could just change a couple and see how they are. It would be quite a bit more to drop the keel as that will take yard workers and equipment, maybe a grand just for that. Otherwise doing all the work yourself would maybe cost $500 + haulout/block/launch $200 (depends on the yard) + lay days (no idea in Seattle but in SoCal that can be over $200/day.

[tager]

Lay days are $26 a day. Usually they go up after a few days!

So I am thinking haul/block/launch is going to be $200.
Environmental fee $26.
Paint $100
Fairing compound $30
Sandpaper, Tyvek suit, masking tape, tarps, rollers, roller pans, etc. $75
New bolts (assuming they come out easy) $50

$559 plus or minus $150

Does that sound realistic?

I am not in a big hurry to get new ones in there, but I figure it would be prudent, considering I don't want to die.

[Gene T]

The paint should be more and perhaps the bolts. I would definitely change one just to see what they look like. Honestly anytime I am starting a boat project I like to figure worst case scenario for costs and then double it. Just because there is always more involved than you think or know about. You might decide to strip the keel, change a through hull, cutlass bearing or something else. Oh, don't forget to figure in new zincs.

[tager]

I dove on the keel. It had a thorough job done at the yard about 3 years ago. Topside paint, bottom paint, strip keel and coal tar epoxy, fair keel hull joint.
I hear the yard bill was $7000. The bottom paint and topsides look pretty good still, though.

Worst case scenario on keel is to grind down a few isolated areas, but it looked perfect when I dove on it, other than a little growth, which is to be expected when in the water more than 2 seasons.

I brought her into freshwater, so most of that growth fell off on it's own. Plus the boat has an outboard in a well, so that saves me a bit of maintenance.

I guess that I will just make sure I have $1000 to throw at it and hope things come out quite a bit cheaper!

[blt2ski]

If you want to replace the bolts, why could you not do one at a time in the water? Pull one off, clean up the bolt, put a new nut/washer on?

Iron keels, yes you will have a "blister" or two when you haul. most of us seem to have that issue. I had to redo the whole keel 3 yrs ago. Figure I do not need to worry about that for about 20 more yrs!

CSR by the locks will allow DIY IIRC, Edmonds does too, but they are probably the MOST expensive yard in the area.

Marty

[tager]

What about canal boatyard? They allow DIY.

Ummm... I don't want to do it in the water. I am pretty sure that the bolt heads are either glassed over, or faired over. I don't want to deal with that underwater. I wish they were just bolted to the exterior of the flange, but I guess not everyone is as utilitarian as me.

I could maybe replace the nuts in the water, but I think the failure point would be the shaft of the bolt.

I guess the prudent thing to do would be to haul for bottom paint, and check to see what condition they are in. I am not thinking that they will look to good, as they are probably original.

[Gene T]

I would not suggest doing this in the water. You would not be able to seal and fair the new bolts or apply bottom paint.

[tager]

Well... I could do all of those things. It wouldn't be safe, easy, environmentally conscious, or legal, though.

Would be cheap!

[Faster]

I have a faint niggling idea that the Haida's were built by Philbrooks in Victoria/Sidney - not positive, but... have you tried contacting them? Some old salt there may remember details if in fact they were built there.

EDIT: Scratch that... if this link is correct... HAIDA 26 Sailboat details on sailboatdata.com