C-22 weldments
Bill:I have two web sites for you and another from Ted here.The first web site has a drawing by Catalina of the keel mounting area showing the placement of the weldments in the hull. The purpose of this drawing was to show how the location of the weldments and a fashion in which they could be replaced.The second web site shows some photographs of removing and reinstalling a weldment.The third site shows how Ted here used a drill press to drill out his weldments. On the Sail Net site, there was a recent discussion regarding replacing weldments. Apparently the consensus there is that the weldments are too thin to be drilled out and re-tapped for a larger bolt.I believe Ted here used a helix coil after he re-tapped his weldments, but there is more information on his site.The accepted practice concluded on the Sail Net site is that stripped weldments or ones in which a bolt has broken off need to be cut out and then new ones glassed in requiring a very precise alignment for the surrounding fiberglass. This is tricky stuff, but apparently doable. Finally, there is the possibility, but untried as of yet as far as I know, of drilling through the weldments inside into the cabin and then have the keel bolts go up through the hangers and then into the cabin secured with nuts with large washers as the fashion on a fixed keel boat.The concern with this method is the potential for a serious leak if one of the bolts broke. However, I think one could cover the nuts and washers with a removable wood cover made water tight with an epoxy resin epoxy seal around its edges around the hull. The epoxy could be easily broken away to remove the cover and expose the nuts and washers for future keel removal. This should eliminate the leak issue, yet provide for easy future keel removal.Here is the link for the drawing from Catalina. After you get it, just place your cursor onto the small picture in the middle with CatKeelWeld written below it to enlarge it and then print it out.http://community.webshots.com/album/116319809qNFvSD