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what do you keel bolts look like?

5K views 22 replies 11 participants last post by  156680 
#1 ·
i was just wondering what keel bolts with lot of use look like and what new keel bolts look like and keel bolts that are junk look like. just want to get a idea of what condition they are in. ill post a pic tomorrow of mine.
 
#4 ·
There's keel bolts you can unscrew with a wrench, like the ones in Beneteaus that are only some inches long.

And then there's keel bolts, in general, which are long j-shaped rods permanently embedded in a lead keel. You can't unscrew a conventional keel bolt at all, you have to cut into the keel and cut off the "J" part to pull the rest of the shaft, unless it has heavily corroded.

If you've got the Beneteau kind, don't worry. They're meant to be removed and replaced one at a time if they get all funky. Don't like the look of them? Replace them. Grease the new ones so they stay rust-free.
 
#7 ·
New look like the left pic, junk look like the right pic. :D If you have an iron keel you can replace them like these pics. Lead keel, not so much.
 

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#8 ·
It is the part that you cannot see that is the worry. These pics are from another thread (posted by eherlihy). The bilge pic shows just light surface corrosion but once the keel is dropped the real damage is visible.

As posted Beneteau type keels (cast iron) are easy to replace but a J bolt in a lead keel is not an easy nor inexpensive job.
 

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#9 · (Edited)
wI'm pretty sure that the Coronado 27 has an iron keel with a flanged root. As such, replacing the keel bolts is very different from doing so on a boat with a lead keel.

The root of the keel sits in a "shoe" molded into the underside of the hull, and the bolts probably have countersunk heads. Remove/replace one bolt at a time. To replace the bolts you get the nuts off (use a nut splitter, cut the nut with a cut-off wheel, or just cut the bolt), then hammer the bolt from inside the boat until the head makes enough of a "pimple" in the fairing so you can tell where it is from the outside. Cut/dig/remove enough fairing to make the head of the bolt visible from the outside (or just hammer it all the way through), and hammer the bolt the rest of the way out. (Did I mention that the boat should be out of the water?). Now, take that bolt to someone with an assortment of iron pan-head bolts and match it as close as you can. Don't bother trying to figure out the size until you've removed a sample bolt, you'll never get the length or head right. You should probably get iron bolts, nuts, and washers to prevent galvanic problems. Put it back together with lots of Dolphinite bedding compound, and torque it down to about 50 ft-lbs, then start on the next bolt. When they're all changed, torque all the bolts to the max recommended for the diameter bolt you are using (ask for the specs when you buy the bolts). When everything is tight you can either refair the keel root, or (if you have a real masochistic streak) take the opportunity to strip the keel completely (old bottom paint, fairing, Bondo, whatever), prime it with an anti-corrosive paint/epoxy, refair it nice and pretty, and repaint it with antifouling.

Take lots of pics during the process, because when you're done you can post them and then you'll be the SailNet guru when it comes to replacing the bolts in this sort of keel.
 
#10 ·
I'm pretty sure that the Coronado 27 has an iron keel with a flanged root. As such, replacing the keel bolts is very different from doing so on a boat with a lead keel.

The root of the keel sits in a "shoe" molded into the underside of the hull, and the bolts probably have countersunk heads. Remove/replace one bolt at a time. To replace the bolts you get the nuts off (use a nut splitter, cut the nut with a cut-off wheel, or just cut the bolt), then hammer the bolt from inside the boat until the head makes enough of a "pimple" in the fairing so you can tell where it is from the outside. Cut/dig/remove enough fairing to make the head of the bolt visible from the outside (or just hammer it all the way through), and hammer the bolt the rest of the way out. (Did I mention that the boat should be out of the water?). Now, take that bolt to someone with an assortment of iron pan-head bolts and match it as close as you can. Don't bother trying to figure out the size until you've removed a sample bolt, you'll never get the length or head right. You should probably get iron bolts, nuts, and washers to prevent galvanic problems. Put it back together with lots of Dolphinite bedding compound, and torque it down to about 50 ft-lbs, then start on the next bolt. When they're all changed, torque all the bolts to the max recommended for the diameter bolt you are using (ask for the specs when you buy the bolts). When everything is tight you can either refair the keel root, or (if you have a real masochistic streak) take the opportunity to strip the keel completely (old bottom paint, fairing, Bondo, whatever), prime it with an anti-corrosive paint/epoxy, refair it nice and pretty, and repaint it with antifouling.

Take lots of pics during the process, because hen you're done you can post them and then you'll be the SailNet guru when it comes to replacing the bolts in this sort of keel.
What you describe sounds like the way the keel is mounted on a Thunderbird - essentially large flathead machine screws upside down through the flange.

I'm not certain but I would suspect the keel on a Coronado would be mounted like the keel on My Columbia 43 which was similar but utilized studs threaded into the flange rather than jumbo screws through the flange.

That's the way it was done on the Columbia 26 which I believe was the same hull, with a different "lid" as the Coronado 27.

Do the following pics qualify me for "guru" status? :D
 

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#12 ·
Hey. Those aren't stainless steel bolts, are they? I was told that SS on an iron keel was a no-no.
 
#16 ·
Yep, they are electropolished S/S, coated with anti-seize before installation.

The pic of the rotten stuff I posted earlier shows what happens to regular steel bolts. I did a lot of research for that very reason - the conventional wisdom is no S/S in an iron keel. I discovered that the big Euro builders all use S/S in iron keels. Due to that and the fact they can be easily pulled and examined, I decided to go that way.

Also, I've never heard of an iron keel with S/S bolts falling off due to crevice corrosion, galvanics or anything else to do with the metals, just a lot of talk about how "dangerous" it was, none of it by the way from anyone who actually OWNED an iron keel.

However I HAVE heard of iron keels mounted with steel bolts falling off - one of them was another Columbia 43 in Sausalito.
 
#17 ·
I, myself, personally don't believe it - that pic was actually taken 32 years ago during the boats original commissioning. ;):D

Yowza Maine - that's the best I've seen on a GOB.
 
#14 · (Edited)
hank mckune built victories, thoroughbreds, helped with coronado, as they came from hank's molds, he also make olympian, yorktown, champion, all american, and consulted with others--charlie morgan, frank butler--in their origins in boat building history. all hank's keels were same in shape, and they were unique in their attachment techniques. coronado 30 and 34 came from olympian molds and much of hank's knowledge went into catalina , coronado, morgan and some few others. hank was an olympic gold medalist, and was the host of the first ever comedy talk show on television. when he left tv, he began building dinghies, a she called them.
i owned an olympian 34 and an all american 30, and i commissioned from hank a 42 ft yorktown...looong ago. he was a very interesting soul.

wesco may have bought the molds from hank, but then, as hank is no longer available fro comment, is an unknown...hank was sneaky .


maine--your bilge is gorgeous!!!
 
#15 ·
Maine_Sail, that bilge is disgusting. Albert Einstein famously said, "A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind." If he had seen that bilge he would have hauled you to the looney bin himself.
 
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#20 ·
And that's what makes you so much more interesting. :D
 
#22 ·
"But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep..." What a great poem.

Fascinating tidbit about our erstwhile poet laureate that connects him to Virginia and boating: as a jilted young man, he took a steamship from N.Y. to Virginia, then wandered into the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia with the intention of committing suicide, then met a group of duck hunters in the swamp, changed his mind and returned to civilization to become one of our greatest poets.
 
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