In 1992 I bought a mark 1 1976 C-30 without realizing that the metalic keel bolts & nuts were much corroded, to the point where some of the nuts were crumbling. What to do? A expert advised me that the sole solution was to buy a complete new keel since the bolts & nuts could not be removed... a most expensive solution. My solution, after many a sleepless night of mental searching: a)I acquired large heavy industrial nuts, 2 inches high, with a large core and used them as moulds; b)I drop them over the bolts & nuts which I brushed and sanded to a white gleam;c)I filled the big bolts with impermeable epoxy glue; d) and clamped on top of them galvanised bolted cable clamps, in effect a set of hupper nuts. Since the inner threadings of the big nuts were waxed before the epoxy treatment I am able to check regularly the state of bolts and nuts. They gleam !The expert, when I showed him my solution to the corrosion problem, used the word "genius"...
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so how do you tighten them? it may keep them where they are now, but keel bolts need preload to prevent them from stretching when loaded (healed over). if they are the least bit loose, it can crack the keel to hull joint.
so how do you tighten them? it may keep them where they are now, but keel bolts need preload to prevent them from stretching when loaded (healed over). if they are the least bit loose, it can crack the keel to hull joint.
loose keel bolts
Robert Taylor's observations about the preloading of keel bolts is quite pertinent in the case of a new boat. But what about an elderly Catalina? One has to assume the stretching is done with...otherwise the boat would have been heavily dammaged long ago.
Robert Taylor's observations about the preloading of keel bolts is quite pertinent in the case of a new boat. But what about an elderly Catalina? One has to assume the stretching is done with...otherwise the boat would have been heavily dammaged long ago.
unrelated but...
I'm too curious...Pierre where exactly to you keep your boat in Quebec City...e-mail me at nfgg@sympatico.ca so we may chat a bit more about Quebec city. (En fait je suis curieux d'en apprendre plus sur la voile au Quebec!) My apologize to other forum members. Cheers, Ghislain
I'm too curious...Pierre where exactly to you keep your boat in Quebec City...e-mail me at nfgg@sympatico.ca so we may chat a bit more about Quebec city. (En fait je suis curieux d'en apprendre plus sur la voile au Quebec!) My apologize to other forum members. Cheers, Ghislain
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