keel lock bolt....help

[Andy Schooler]

Help ..... we are new to sailing and have recently purchased a 22' MacGregor Venture....not positive of the year.....can you tell from the serial 38 E 12881Unfortunately the previous skipper of this sailboat is now in Europe and we have a missing lock bolt for the keel.....there are a few other areas of concern but this is the major concern.....From the MacGregor manual site online it reads that a 3/8 X 3 1/2 " bolt is needed....but the hole seems to be much much bigger.....Can anyone advise us on this and give us info where to purchase this and what we can use in the meantime in order to actual sail this boat again...Can someone also verify that this is actually a MacGregor and what size it is from the serial #....it seem bigger than 22' or are we measuring wrong??Any help would be appreciated since our sailing time in Thunder Bay is defintelty limited due to natural weather concerns let alone missing lock bolts....

 

[M. Field]

I'm not an authority on these boats but have been doing some research on MacGregor 22...It appears that you have a MacGregor/Venture 24.Not sure what year but they were in production between 1969 and 1974.My reference is on the Havencraft MacGregor/Venture website (see related link below). Hope this helps out.

 

[Gary]

2/8 x 3 1/2

That's the correct size bolt. I bought one at at the hardware store and it works fine. If the hole in the keel trunk is still round (and not ripped out) then this should be the right size. The hole in the keel itself is 3/8.

 

[Bob]

Keel bolt hole

Your bolt hole might be worn. See if you can look through and line up