removehtml]It seems the previous owner had tightened the keel bolt too much and cracked the fiberglass alittle. Now it is leaking water. Is there anything I can seal it with until I haul it out? it is a 1969 O"Day R26Error: Error: expected [/URL], but found [/removehtml] instead[/removehtml]
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leak
Wow those appear to be very small keel bolts.I would suggest either beaching your boat or tying your dock lines extra tight when there is a suspected extra low tide coming.Doing this you can releive the water pressure from the top of the keel.You should then be abble to do a temporary fix with 3m 5200 . There is a trick in the west systems epoxy book about keel bolts on wooden boats(drilling around them with an oversized hole saw and filling with epoxy) this trick may help you in the future.However I suspect you have water probably entering a seam where your keel meets your hull. Good luck with it. Capt.Fish
Wow those appear to be very small keel bolts.I would suggest either beaching your boat or tying your dock lines extra tight when there is a suspected extra low tide coming.Doing this you can releive the water pressure from the top of the keel.You should then be abble to do a temporary fix with 3m 5200 . There is a trick in the west systems epoxy book about keel bolts on wooden boats(drilling around them with an oversized hole saw and filling with epoxy) this trick may help you in the future.However I suspect you have water probably entering a seam where your keel meets your hull. Good luck with it. Capt.Fish
5200
I liked the idea of drilling and filling with epoxy too, but epoxy is too brittle and has no strength against shock loads or tensile. One whack and your 'epoxy keelbolt' is done. One solution is to actually drill a new keelbolt hole, right down into the lead (be very careful to go straight!) and insert a new bolt with 5200, which will bond nicely to the lead all the way down the hole you drilled, at 700 lbs/sq.in. Fit a large backing plate or washer and seal it all up from the inside with 5200. I don't know of a GOOD fix you can effect with the boat still leaking and IN the water. There are some things at West Marine that are very temporary but do seal underwater or in less-than-ideal conditions. The correct fix, and one of the easiest with the boat OUT of the water, is what I am doing to poor little Diana with her rotted substrata where the keel fastens onto the hull. Block up the boat. Stand it on the keel but support the hull outside bulkhead points too. If the 'glass is rotten you will need to drill a few pilot holes into the substrata and fill with epoxy using a syringe, the same was I say to do for rotted deck core. This takes up the space vacated by the disintegrated 'glass. When this is done, back off all the nuts and washers (gently) and cut out a piece of 3/8" G-10 (or straight fiberglass sheet) to lower onto at least two or three bolts on each side. Mine are about 1-3/8" by three keelbolt spaces, one each side with a space between them for bilgewater to get past. Fitted along the corner of the bilge, these bond to both the bottom and the side of the hull and lend stiffness and a backing surface for the keelbolt nuts. Then smother everything with 5200, bolt the new locknuts and new washers down over the plates you made, and be sure to wait 3 days before torquing the living crud out of it. Given good clean-up and adhesion before applying the 5200, it should last about 25 years. (Can't say that about polysulphides like Life Caulk... and definitely can't say anything like that about silicone.... ick.)
I liked the idea of drilling and filling with epoxy too, but epoxy is too brittle and has no strength against shock loads or tensile. One whack and your 'epoxy keelbolt' is done. One solution is to actually drill a new keelbolt hole, right down into the lead (be very careful to go straight!) and insert a new bolt with 5200, which will bond nicely to the lead all the way down the hole you drilled, at 700 lbs/sq.in. Fit a large backing plate or washer and seal it all up from the inside with 5200. I don't know of a GOOD fix you can effect with the boat still leaking and IN the water. There are some things at West Marine that are very temporary but do seal underwater or in less-than-ideal conditions. The correct fix, and one of the easiest with the boat OUT of the water, is what I am doing to poor little Diana with her rotted substrata where the keel fastens onto the hull. Block up the boat. Stand it on the keel but support the hull outside bulkhead points too. If the 'glass is rotten you will need to drill a few pilot holes into the substrata and fill with epoxy using a syringe, the same was I say to do for rotted deck core. This takes up the space vacated by the disintegrated 'glass. When this is done, back off all the nuts and washers (gently) and cut out a piece of 3/8" G-10 (or straight fiberglass sheet) to lower onto at least two or three bolts on each side. Mine are about 1-3/8" by three keelbolt spaces, one each side with a space between them for bilgewater to get past. Fitted along the corner of the bilge, these bond to both the bottom and the side of the hull and lend stiffness and a backing surface for the keelbolt nuts. Then smother everything with 5200, bolt the new locknuts and new washers down over the plates you made, and be sure to wait 3 days before torquing the living crud out of it. Given good clean-up and adhesion before applying the 5200, it should last about 25 years. (Can't say that about polysulphides like Life Caulk... and definitely can't say anything like that about silicone.... ick.)
Torque
JC, are you really asking him to install a keel bolt with just 5200..no threads? I'd be hard pressed to trust even threads in a lead keel...some boats cast stainless U bolts into their keels so it's never going to come out (although, if it does need replaced, you're in trouble). And then to say "torque the living crud out of it"...?? what's that mean? I'd be willing to bet it only takes around 250 ft-lbs (which is a lot) to rip threads out of a lead keel, especially on a fine threaded bolt like a keel bolt. 700 psi? The strength of 8% antimony lead is 7500 PSI. That sounds like a weak link for sure.
JC, are you really asking him to install a keel bolt with just 5200..no threads? I'd be hard pressed to trust even threads in a lead keel...some boats cast stainless U bolts into their keels so it's never going to come out (although, if it does need replaced, you're in trouble). And then to say "torque the living crud out of it"...?? what's that mean? I'd be willing to bet it only takes around 250 ft-lbs (which is a lot) to rip threads out of a lead keel, especially on a fine threaded bolt like a keel bolt. 700 psi? The strength of 8% antimony lead is 7500 PSI. That sounds like a weak link for sure.
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