The keel bolts on our Hunter 450 have come loose. The yard says we have to remove the keel, inspect the bolts and reinstall the keel. This is a very expensive process. Anyone else have experience with this? Is this process necessary?
Hunter 450 keel bolt problems
- Thread starter ltempleton
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Sounds to me the only proper thing to do pulling the boat and put on land check and see why the bolts are loose.
You want to make sure what the problem is ,would not want the keel to fall off while sailing.
Sounds to me the only proper thing to do pulling the boat and put on land check and see why the bolts are loose.
You want to make sure what the problem is ,would not want the keel to fall off while sailing.
What do you mean when you say ... " The keel bolts on our Hunter 450 have come loose" ? ..
Do you mean that the keel bolt nuts in the bilge are loose (and leaking ??)
or that the lower portion of the keel that is bolted to the boat is actually beginning to become detached?
How Many
I guess Buck is asking are all the nuts or bolts loose.
When I did the Hunter factory tour I watched them lower the boat down on to the keel with the bolts slipping into the holes in the bottom of the hull.
Those bolts are the only thing holding the keel on the boat so if they are loose you need to check them.
If just the nuts loose I would still pull the boat on to land and check to see what's going on with the keel and maybe while on the hard if no space or cracks around the keel or any other defects around the keel joint than maybe just tighten the nuts,but check it real good.
Nick
I guess Buck is asking are all the nuts or bolts loose.
When I did the Hunter factory tour I watched them lower the boat down on to the keel with the bolts slipping into the holes in the bottom of the hull.
Those bolts are the only thing holding the keel on the boat so if they are loose you need to check them.
If just the nuts loose I would still pull the boat on to land and check to see what's going on with the keel and maybe while on the hard if no space or cracks around the keel or any other defects around the keel joint than maybe just tighten the nuts,but check it real good.
Nick
Larry:
How have you been? I guess better than the boat.
How much are they quoting for this procedure? I am not familiar with the keel on the 45, but this would not appear to be that big of a deal. Put the boat on the lift and remove the nuts holding the keel on, and lift the boat onto a cradle.
Once they determine if the keel stub is okay (or not) they would just reverse the process.
I can see that you could run up some costs if the stub needs repair, but otherwise this would seem to be a few hours in each direction.
Where are you thinking about having this done? Have you thought about taking it up into the Delta? Call Walton's Marine Repair in Rio Vista and ask him for a quote. He may not be any cheaper, but it is worth checking.
ask for Bob or John
765 Beach Dr
Rio Vista, CA 94571
707-374-5475
Tell them that Steve Dion from Hidden Harbor sent you!
How have you been? I guess better than the boat.
How much are they quoting for this procedure? I am not familiar with the keel on the 45, but this would not appear to be that big of a deal. Put the boat on the lift and remove the nuts holding the keel on, and lift the boat onto a cradle.
Once they determine if the keel stub is okay (or not) they would just reverse the process.
I can see that you could run up some costs if the stub needs repair, but otherwise this would seem to be a few hours in each direction.
Where are you thinking about having this done? Have you thought about taking it up into the Delta? Call Walton's Marine Repair in Rio Vista and ask him for a quote. He may not be any cheaper, but it is worth checking.
ask for Bob or John
765 Beach Dr
Rio Vista, CA 94571
707-374-5475
Tell them that Steve Dion from Hidden Harbor sent you!
Why Not Just Tighten Them?
Honestly, this seems to me like initial overkill. But, that's just me.
As far as I know, it's just bedded with 5200 to the stub and bolted. I may be brash, but if it were mine, before I'd let the yard go all big time on it, I'd tighten the keel bolts and monitor it. I also would not have the yard do it but rather someone else. Further, I'd run it by Hunter first and get the torque specs, altho I think it will come out to a 3/4 inch drive with a couple of long extensions and a breaker bar with good leverage.
Honestly, this seems to me like initial overkill. But, that's just me.
This is the second post like this in the last two weeks. First off the nuts can't just come loose. What did you hit? If you did hit something it's an insurance claim.
Secondly the nuts could be taken off altogether and I'd bet the keel would not just fall off of the boat. 5200 is some pretty tough stuff and that is why they use it.
when we surveyed our '85 hunter 40 we were concerned with this due to a crack along the outline of keel. I spoke with an engineer at hunter and they told me it was just due to flex and not an issue. If I was concerned, I could grind it out and fill it to make it pretty again. He said you couldn't pull the keel off without removing chunks of fiberglass, the bolts are almost just there to hold the keel on while the epoxy they used dries and as a backup. Do call hunter, this saved me about $5k.
Re: Why Not Just Tighten Them?
By the way, I should also mention that my Vision 32 had loose keel boats at nine months old when I bought it. I had the yard re-torque them. Problem solved for nine years. I also had the ones on my 40.5 done when I got it five years old. I don't know if they were loose or not. It was a preemptive move.
By the way, I should also mention that my Vision 32 had loose keel boats at nine months old when I bought it. I had the yard re-torque them. Problem solved for nine years. I also had the ones on my 40.5 done when I got it five years old. I don't know if they were loose or not. It was a preemptive move.
Further on our keel bolt problems
The bottom line - I think this is a weakness in the 450 design and I'd urge all 450 owners to periodically retorque their keel bolts so they don't have to go through what we experienced. Other Hunter owners might wish to check theirs also.
This turned out to be an expensive mess. The yard insisted on removing the keel and it's a good thing they did. There was very little bedding compound remaining and all of the keel bolts were bathed in salt water. The aft keel bolt was seriously eroded from galvanic corrosion and had to be replaced. The design of the top of the keel is very poor and, in my opinion, can't be relied upon to keep water away from the bolts. There is a flat mating surface about 3/4" wide around the top of the keel and adjacent to the keel bolts. Inside of the 3/4" mating surface are shallow depressions or wells that were filled with foam. The boat yard removed the foam and filled these depressions with a loaded epoxy cement so that now the entire top of the keel is flat and can be used as a sealing surface. Then they reassembled it all with lots of bedding compound. I think it should have been made flat in the first place.
The bottom line - I think this is a weakness in the 450 design and I'd urge all 450 owners to periodically retorque their keel bolts so they don't have to go through what we experienced. Other Hunter owners might wish to check theirs also.
If you haven't had the boat since new, I suspect previous damage that was not properly repaired. I've been to the factory and watched them lower the hulls onto the keels, and there was no foam fill in there.
I agree with Charlie,
When the factory puts it together they use 5200 not foam and there is no water getting to any of the bolts period.
Something was done to that boat. Maybe the keel was removed by the PO to move the boat.
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