Keel Bolts

[Bill]

I have a Catalina 30 with mild steel keel bolts, these bolts are badly corroded and as the engine is out at the moment I am planning to replace them. Catalina have a repair using Stainless steel lag bolts, but I am not very happy with this repair and am planning to drop the keel and have the existing bolts drilled/milled out to a depth of 12" and install 3/4" bronze bolts with nuts installed in side windows cut into the keel adjacent to the drilled vertical holes.Has anyone else tried this style of repair and if so how long did it take and how successful was it!!All comments/recommendations gratefully received.

 

[Ron F.]

bronze vs stainless steel

I can not comment about changing the keelbolts in the manner you discuss, but why bronze?Stainless steel has 2 to 3 times the tensile strength of bronze. Going through all that that work to change them, be cautious of the material selection. Catalina uses stainless in their later designs for a reason.