C27 waterdamage keel, wet glass, rip out keel?

[John]

keel bolts

Hi markus I think that the heat from runing the lag screw down will make the epoxy flash off and if you cant get the bolts in on the first try you mite have a problem. You could cut the wood away with a hole saw and remove the wood where you want to put the new bolts .fill the holes with epoxy filler then glass over . Then drill thru the keel and epoxy filler .,seal the lag screw with 5200 .The keel bolt speck is 95 to 100FT lbs .I use a 3/4 drive torque wrench with a deep socket and TwoFT extention .The bolts just come up tight with a 1/2 drive socket wrench and wont move anty tigher by hand thats about 100FTLBS Try to make them the same .If You call catalina 18188847700 and ask for lanore in CS dept she can help you .and she is a real sweet to.Keneth is ok two.they can come up with all kinds of cool specks. John

 

[markus]

keel bolt nuts are off.. everyone's suggestion...

ok. everyone said, take the keel bolt nuts off... i got them out. One came loose with my impact gun, and the rest with the dremmel cut off disk and a long medium sized cold chisel. THANKS FOR ALL THE SUPPORT SO FAR!!! YOU GUYS ARE GREAT!!!!!!!The bolts themselves below the nut are in great shape. So, maybe I should have done this before ordering the stainless steel lag bolts. I will take some layers of the wood off, as suggested because i need it to get more good keel bolt threads and then glass in new glass and then drive in new sister bolts, too... I still have to grind off the gelcoat on the insides of the bilge walls so that the glass can attach to the sidewalls of the bilge... what fun!

 

[Fred]

The epoxy only goes on the part of the lag that

threads down into the keel. The wood screw part. Don't worry about heat. You are screwing into the mother of all heat sinks. I should say the epoxy only stays on the wood threads. It gets all over and you have to clean the machine thread end, see below.Pull the bit out very often as you drill to get the chips out of the hole. The lead chips can jam and you will never get the bit out. I thought I was going to leave a bit in my keel, but two pairs of vice grips and a slide hammer finally pulled it out. Very slowly. Took as long to get the bit out as it took to drill all five holes.When you tighten the keel next year, you will tighten the nuts on the machine screw end of the lag. That's why you use a lag screw rather than a lag bolt.Lag bolt has a head on one end and threads on the other. Lag screw has wood threads on one end and machine threads (for a nut) on the other.I took the nuts off after I screwed the lags in, cleaned the threads, and put never sieze on the nuts and threads when I tightened them up for good On top of a big washer). I was afraid that even a bit of epoxy coud freeze the nut.You need to lock two nuts against each other to screw the lags in. Watch as you screw the lag in that the nuts don't slip. You may have to tighten them against each other half way through.If you turn on the top nut, it usually works OK. You're almost there. Good work!

 

[Markus]

catalina yachts were really helpful

I called catalina yachts today and i got through to Kenneth right away! He was super nice and really helpful. He said the old bolts are 83 ftlbs torque specs for the nuts. Really nice and helpful. explained a few things and really friendly. That is a nice company still supporting their 37 year old products. Very impressed.

 

[Fred]

Markus, what I want to know

is; was Kenneth really helpful?All seriousness aside, the folks at Catalina have been great when I needed help. When we had to cut a foot off the bottom of the C38 mast (long story) to get it ready to truck north from California, Catalina referred me to the folks who supplied the spar, and who to talk to there. The spar folks had the splice kit at the yard in Blaine, Wa. Before the boat got there, with a diagram for welding pattern, and hand written instructions for the welder. So far, Hunter has been just as good for paper support and advice even before I bought the 11 year old boat. I haven't needed any parts yet. The H26 is so simple and system free that it may be a long time before I need parts.

 

[Markus]

not a joke.. was helpful

Yes, Kenneth at Catalina was really helpful. It was not joke. I think it is very nice that a manufacturer still supports their products after 30 years!

 

[Fred]

Markus, I was impressed by

your enthusiasm. I agree. The folks at Catalina have always been really helpful.I'm impressed, too. It's nice to know our boats (I'm including Hunter here) were built by folks with integrity and enthusiasm.

 

[John]

I am glad your job is going well

Sound like you are makeing head way.I have My C 30 in a 36' tarped building and I have been working hard .I dont think im getting in the water this year.I have re cored my decks and re glassed both sides .We removed both toe rails and replaced them with mohogany .( Looks great but i hate brite work)I have a wet spot around my traveler and need to re place the towers and traveler .my bottom is striped and half sanded.every thing is looking good but takeing longer then i thought,I had two weeks off in march that i was going to finish some boat work but it was snowy and cold. and i had to work.Last weekend I got sick two much dust, thinner and epoxy .Im feeling better now and cleaned up the boat house two day .when you do the work in the bilge dont foget some fans to pump air in and out .The epoxy is not bad( I like Mas epoxy becouse it is less smelly) but the 202 f/G cleaner is very nasty stuffb ut works great to clean grease and silacone out of the bilge.