Another keel bolt issue

[Ghislain]

We would need some help from the C30 nation.We recently purchased a lovely C30 1987 and of course, we are in love! Upon launching this baby, we noticed a slight crack at the rear of the keel (This was not appearant at the survey). We did a great amount of reading in the Forums archives and have learnt a lot about this issue. Here's another twist to this situation, We can see at the bottom of the bilge that one of the keel bolts has slightly cave into the plywood (We can see cracks in the FG). From our reading, the keel is very unlikely to fall off! Right???Our question is: "Is it possible to undo two of the keel bolts, while the vessel is in the water, to install a s/s support plate under the bolts to reinforce the keel support, so it will hold until the fall and allow us to carry out the repairs as per Catalina's recommandations?" (See Catalina's tech drawings site)Thanks for al your help!GGThe happy sailor

 

[Richard]

Haul it...

Better to have your boat on the hard when doing this operation. Too many things to go wrong. If the crack is only slight you can make it thru the season before you take on the keel stub repair.

 

[Steve]

Fixed Mine

Had a similar problem on my '87 C-30T about 5 years ago. After the boat was hauled for the winter, the dealer arranged for his glass man to fix it as follows:With the boat on the cradle and standing on the keel, remove the nuts from the front keel bolts. Cut, hack, and/or chop out the front 1/2 of the material from the keel sump. Mine was filled with a very nice piece of perfectly good Mahogony (sp?). Once the front half was clean down through the wood, he built a "dam" and filled the space with filled epoxy up to the level of the old keel sump. Once the epoxy had cured, the keel washers and nuts were re-applied, and the same procedure was repeated on the back half of teh keel sump (under the motor was apparently a bugger!).The crack was re-glassed, and everything was supposed to be fine.Not so. When the boat was hoisted to re-launch in the spring, the crack instantly re-appeared again (it was as wide as the thickness of a quarter, and ran from the back edge of the keel about three feet toward the front). The boat was launched anyway, and the boat sailed for the third season with this crack at the back of the keel with no leaks apparent.The next spring, the boat was lifted off the cradle with jack stands, and the crack was cleaned. Once the junk, zebra muscles, etc were removed, teh crack was filled with thickened epoxy, and the crack was again re-taped. This fixed the problem.I had contacted Catalina about the problem, and was told to fill the crack with epoxy, so after about $3,000, I followed the company suggestion.Steve

 

[Augie Byllott]

Keel bolt issue

When the crack appears at the front of the keel, I believe they call it the "Catalina Smile"I have a C30 that has had one for the past 14 years. Every few years I scrape out any loose material, put in some fresh thickened epoxy, fair it, and bottom paint it. Like clockwork, it reappears.