Has anyone ever done this? I've got an 82 27 and am considering the full upgrade - taking out the wood, refilling and replacing keelbolts. Just looking for advice from someone who's already done it.
Catalina 27 Keel Upgarde?
- Thread starter Sea Changer
- Start date
I replaced the wood in my keel on my 1980 C27. I cut and chiseled out the plywood myself and then had a professional come in to do the glass and epoxy work. My cost was $975 for two guys for about 5 hours work. I would have done the work myself except I get an allergic reaction to epoxy and can't be exposed to it for very long. After the glass work I epoxied in (with thickened epoxy) one inch of G-10 board to make up for the plywood I took out. I did this for an area covering a couple inches fore and aft of the two sets of tandem bolts. My keel bolts were stainless steel and I didn't have to replace them as they were good down to the bottom of the original glass. They were taped over with masking tape so they would not be epoxied in. All in all not a terrible job. Taking out the old bolts and putting new ones in will add significantly to the complexity depending on how it's done. If you drop the keel and send it away for the work I'm sure it will cost several thousands of dollars. Some have "windowed" in new keel bolts and this could be done with the keel in place. Depending on the condition of the current bolts another option is to use lag bolts. Catalina Direct sells a kit for this purpose and it certainly would be a much less expensive option. Some don't think the lag bolt fix is a very reliable option, but others do. I notice you are in a salt water environment so that may affect the condition of the current bolts and the decision of which way to go. I don't know what Catalina was thinking when they installed that wood in the keel sump. Not a very good decision on their part.
The window method is where you drill down(vertical) into the keel from the inside of the boat. Then on the outside of the boat you drill horizontally and intersect with the vertical drilling. You drop a new keel bolt in the vertical hole and use the horizontal opening to attach a small plate(maybe washers) and nut. This gives you a keel bolt with a solid wide surface connection to the surrounding lead. With a lag bolt the connection is only the threads of the lag bolt. With either method you have to drill the vertical hole. Drilling lead is not that hard to do.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/catalina27/
just got done doing the upgrade its a messy job and not fun but did it! $400-5$500 bucks glass, resin, gel coat my bolts fresh water so no big deal, used a grinder small blade, a new style osculating cut saw, chisel .https://www.facebook.com/groups/catalina27/
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do the compression post upgrade too while at it,http://www.facebook.com/groups/catalina27/just got done doing the upgrade its a messy job and not fun but did it! $400-5$500 bucks glass, resin, gel coat my bolts fresh water so no big deal, used a grinder small blade, a new style osculating cut saw, chisel .https://www.facebook.com/groups/catalina27/
Re: Catalina 27 Keel Upgrade
Catalina made over 6000 C27s, which is a huge number for a sailboat. By all the information I have ever seen, there has never been a documented case of a keel falling off. This includes all those boats sitting year round in salt water for the past 35-40 years with absolutely zero maintenance. A lot of time and money is sometimes spent to attempt to remedy what is actually a non-problem. Tune your rigging and buy new sails. That will make a change in your boat that you will truly notice.
Catalina made over 6000 C27s, which is a huge number for a sailboat. By all the information I have ever seen, there has never been a documented case of a keel falling off. This includes all those boats sitting year round in salt water for the past 35-40 years with absolutely zero maintenance. A lot of time and money is sometimes spent to attempt to remedy what is actually a non-problem. Tune your rigging and buy new sails. That will make a change in your boat that you will truly notice.
When I cut into the plywood in my keel sump it was totally wet everywhere. I would say it was not rotted but totally wet. Not sure how long it would be before rot started. Not sure why Catalina thought this was a good place to put a big chunk of wood. Never heard of this(putting wood in the keel sump) from any other sailboat manufacturer.
"Why Do Fin Keels Fail" - Sail Magazine
Recently published by Sail magazine:
http://www.sailmagazine.com/boatworks/why-do-fin-keels-fail
Recently published by Sail magazine:
http://www.sailmagazine.com/boatworks/why-do-fin-keels-fail
Its not a big deal if you don't care, but the smile common on lots of other boats will let water and salt water the worse to get up in the bolt threads and yes some day it could be a problem, this is solved by proper bolt torqueing as the washers and bolt threads sag in to the rotten ply wood, I like a safe boat and upgrade when needed safety a-1 and a safe old boat is a fun one as I cant afford a new one!
many manufactures of the era did the same thing to join the keel to the boat at manufacture as it was a cushion and spread the load over a large area, it worked and keeps on working as the update of glass/roving/mat has the strength as said 6000 of these made and they keep on sailing ! I love ours and keep up on all the updates and the common leak ,but next to that find a good one keep her well worth it to fix her up! as so many PO jut used and abused the repairs just don't justify the end value.