Concerned about keel bolt of Siren 17

[shaant01]

Hello,

I am a rather new sailor so I forgive me if I am not familiar with some of the terminology.

I recently bought a Siren 17 and it works well as far as I can tell. However, the keel bolt on the keel trunk seems to leak. I would rather not remove the boat from the water until the end of the season. In order to stop the leak from inside the cabin, I used sealant and hardening clay in a donut shape around the bolt. I couldn't see much rust on the bolt; a bit of water just leaks in slowly. I probably have to reseal the keel eventually, but that would force me to take it out of the water. Is there an urgent threat that the keel bolt snaps? I am worried about structural damage and the boat potentially sinking.

I hope that is clear! The boat is from the late 70s.

Cheers

 

[PaulK]

You are right about using the wrong terminology. The Siren 17 has a centerboard, so has no keel bolts. Pivot pins (usually a bolt) in centerboard trunks often leak. If the leak is slow you can keep up with it by bailing every few days. If it is faster than that you might want to haul the boat and fix it. You should probably not worry about the bolt breaking. It has held up since the '70's and isn't likely to disintegrate in the next few months. You can change the bolt if it looks worn when you go to fix the leak. This is usually quite simple: you put new rubber washers against the centerboard trunk, under the steel washers that are already on the bolt. If you want to go wild you can add some sealant (NOT 5200!) under the rubber washers before tightening everything back into place. The hardest part of the fix is getting the centerboard lined up right where it needs to be for the pin to go back through. It can help to draw two lines on the centerboard - one vertical and one horizontal- through the pivot point so you can see which way the board has to move to line up properly.

 

[Timm R Oday25]

Removing the pivot bolt , will require pulling the boat .. On every boat I've ever worked on , once the pivot bolt is removed the centerboard is free to fall out . There is no reason you couldn't pull the boat onto the trailer and simply replace the bolt .I'd at least put something in the hole to hold the centerboard in place before I pulled the bolt out completely

 

[shaant01]

You are right about using the wrong terminology. The Siren 17 has a centerboard, so has no keel bolts. Pivot pins (usually a bolt) in centerboard trunks often leak. If the leak is slow you can keep up with it by bailing every few days. If it is faster than that you might want to haul the boat and fix it. You should probably not worry about the bolt breaking. It has held up since the '70's and isn't likely to disintegrate in the next few months. You can change the bolt if it looks worn when you go to fix the leak. This is usually quite simple: you put new rubber washers against the centerboard trunk, under the steel washers that are already on the bolt. If you want to go wild you can add some sealant (NOT 5200!) under the rubber washers before tightening everything back into place. The hardest part of the fix is getting the centerboard lined up right where it needs to be for the pin to go back through. It can help to draw two lines on the centerboard - one vertical and one horizontal- through the pivot point so you can see which way the board has to move to line up properly.

That is fantastic advice! It is not too much water so I may leave it for another little while and drain the cabin every so often, but I will use the washers - I heard that often fixes the leak. Cheers!