Catalina 27 Keel Repair (1984)

Aug 20, 2019
1
Catalina 27 Lake Lanier
Hi All,
I have a small crack on the aft section at the keel-hull junction and it is allowing water to enter the bilge from under the engine pan. We are hauling it in the next couple of weeks. Question...assuming that the plywood core is shot and needs to be replaced, can the repair be done without dropping the keel? Or would it be prudent to drop the keel and rebed it with fresh 5200?
Thanks for all opinions.
Tony
 

›Deleted member 146572

Hi Tony,

I am following and bumping to see if you had a solution, as my Cat 27 has the same issue. I am hoping to pull it out and work on it in the next month or so. I’m over at Lake Martin at the Dixie Sailing Club. Let me know what you ended up doing and how that worked.
 

RoyS

.
Jun 3, 2012
1,739
Hunter 33 Steamboat Wharf, Hull, MA
Catalina graciously supplied me with a procedure for adding keel bolts to supplement the corroding ones on my (maybe) 1974 C27. I did not have a leak but my original keel bolts and nuts were extremely corroded. That procedure outlined a very difficult repair that involved boring large holes (maybe 1-1/2" diameter) completely through the keel sides, followed by vertical holes (maybe 3/4") bored down through the bilge to intersect the horizontal holes. You then had to have stainless rods (maybe 1" diameter and 2" long) drilled and tapped through the sides to accept new fashioned (maybe 3/4") stainless keel bolts that threaded into them from the bilge. After that you applied nuts and washers to the new keel bolts and filled the horizontal keel holes with fiberglass. Sorry for the lack of certain details but I did that job many years ago and I would never want to attempt it again. It did work, however.
 

›Deleted member 146572

Ok. Yikes! I have put it off long enough to where I have to do something. I’ve debated all the work myself, but I might find someone who will do that kind of work for me. I was just dreading regular bottom work
 
Jun 25, 2004
1,108
Corsair F24 Mk1 003 San Francisco Bay, CA
Here is a page with copies of all the drawings about keel repair on the Catalina 27s.
Note that you can have a separation between the hull and keel from incorrect blocking on the hard, but not necessarily need to replace the wood /or keel bolts.

Catalina 27 Keel Repair - Factory drawings