Catalina 27 Keel Bolts and Stub Repair

[Patriot_Sailor]

Hello everyone. While in the boat yard, I'm looking to perform the keel stub fix for my 1974 C27 and remove the plywood from the keel stub, rebuild with glass, then sister/window in some new 316 SS keel bolts (not lag screws) as prescribed by Catalina. I have found numerous other threads dealing with this issue, but my question specifically refers to where to attach the new fiberglass in the stub. After you remove the top layer of fiberglass in the bilge and remove the plywood filler in the stub then several layers of new glass must be placed. In order to provide a secure hold for the new keel bolts does the glass need to be run up onto the sides of the bilge or maybe beyond? It looks like the Catalina drawing recommends running glass 6" up from the stub onto the bilge sides in order to provide a secure hold for the keel bolts. My concern is that if you only fill in the stub with glass there would not seem to be enough strength to hold the new keel bolts. Any ideas from those that have performed this repair? I also plan to glass in some G-10 in the bilge as a backing plate for the keel bolts.

Thank you.

 

[stevec22206]

I did this repair 2 years ago on our 87'. I did not have to remove the wood filler as it was a solid piece of wood, not plywood. I layered in the glass and carried it up on the sides of the bilge as recommended. I also layed in pieces of G10 around the keel bolts. If Ihad enough I would have made one solid piece to fill the entire bilge and glass that in. As it stands the G10 distributes the load sufficiently and provides a rock solid base when retorquing the keel bolts. Being that ours is an 87' the keel bolts are stainless and did not require replacement.

 

[Patriot_Sailor]

Thanks for the info. I guess the older C27's like my 1974 model used plywood in the stub and mild steel keel bolts which is not good.

 

[Ajay73]

Patriot, I did the repair and ran the glass 6" up the side as suggested by Catalina. To replace the thickness that was provided by the plywood I used two 1/2" layers of the G10 material. I epoxied in this G10 material. But I could only run the G10 a little bit beyond and behind the middle two pair of bolts for the entire expanse. For the two single keel bolts I made what I would call a thick gasket that is removable. This gasket is made out of many layers of glass cloth and resin. I masked off the area around the two single bolts and basically used the shape of the keel sump as a mold for this "gasket" so it would fit perfectly with the contours of the sump around the single bolts. The reason I did this is because the single keel bolts were off center in the sump and close to one side of the sump. This made it kind of impossible to use G10 like I did for the middle two pair so I had to improvise.

 

[Patriot_Sailor]

Thank you both. I will let you know how it goes once I get to this project in the next month or so.