i have just purchased a 83 hunter 34 and first item to address is the smile doesn' seem to awful but could use advice from othe owners. seal and fair.

[shemandr]

Keel bolt integrity to cracked port light lenses? There’s an order of difference in importance.

 

[kramerica]

Still working on keel bolts portlight lenses is cracked and can’t be secured to be watertight

 

[east coaster]

Had the same issue on my 83 Catalina 30. I just googled repairing catalina smile and got the answer from catalina. Followed the instructions to the letter and no problems since. I recommend using G flex as it has a 30% movement allowance and is easy to work with. It's cheaper in the long run and has prevented any further problems.

 

[kloudie1]

Just a couple of notes re H-34 keel:
The keel has "ears" that stick out to either side of the main fin part so it is a lot more stable than a regular keel that is mostly bolted on centerline. Those ear flanges are recessed into the hull and the main structural grid.. The bolts embedded into the cast iron are stainless as are the nuts and backing plates. The bolts/nuts are not in bilge water so they stay pretty much nice looking. Of course, any long term leakage around a keel bolt can result in crevice corrosion, but the added stability that the "ear" flanges give to the keel makes leakage less likely.
In the picture where you can see two, the bolts are about 12 inches apart. also of note is you can see in the bilge picture "pocket" bilge in the hull.That is the shape that you can see the "crack" trace in his original picture. at the top of the keel. Does he have a significant problem? I can't really know but I'd wager that the keel is OK BUT he needs to carefully look at the chainplate attachment angle iron anchors that are mostly concealed in the structural grid.
Here is what my keel bolts look like after 40+ years:

 

[kramerica]

Thank so much very helpful just got the boat surveyed yesterday some issue but no devastating news. I will get rid of rust with sort of rust remover the yard will not let me bring it off I’ll figure it out
Thank you again
Mike

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

The out come of tightening the keel bolts

I hate to ne a killjoy here but "WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE HERE" by tightening (or trying to tighten) the keel bolts ?

The keel bolts are SS and very likely siezed into the CI keel due to a combination of 1) galvanic corrosion and 2) crevice corrosion over many years. Tightening will tell you absolutely nothing and may very well break the keel bolt. Same goes for loosening the bolt which is a good precursor if you don't know anyting about checking torque. If this happens, you will learn the true meaning of grief and expence.

As we both know, you've never touched a keel bolt in your life. Many of the people who have offered their opinions here have checked keel bolts before and did know what what they were doing because they researched the process and learned from experienced people. They learned such things such as, "What is the specified torque on each keel bolt ?" You might want to find out. But maybe this is not your method of learning.

No movement I was informed the joint was done 4 years prior by owner.
he said at the time the bolts were in great shape. I’ll inform on Monday about the torquing of bolts in

Looked to be in great shape and yet he couldn't see them ? ? ? How could he when they are still inside the keel ? Maybe they didn't move because they were seized ?

I guess if you're out in the boat and the keel does decide to drop, this is your choice. It's like the old saying goes, "Your boat, your choice." Please make sure that you are not subjecting innocent people to your poor decisions.