Keel question

[Jay Elliott]

Hello all,My father and I are working on a 1975 Hunter 25. The boat needs great deal of work and one of the problems was that the keel was letting water in. We have lowered the keel off of the boat and in doing so, two of the bolts that were inside the lead keel have come out. One of them was had to be rotated out for an entire foot of bolt! The other bolt was a bit loose to begin with. When it was removed, it was only about 5-6 inches in length with a messed up end (the rest of it had been sheered off?). This means that more than likely there is about 6-5 inches of bolt still in the keel and we were wondering what we should do. Any suggestion would be helpful.

 

[Pops]

no help here but,

I also have a 1975 Hunter. I have owned the boat for one year and have only begun to scratch the surface on needed repairs. I will help in anyway I can and can help with questions on how things are set up if you are missing things, etc. I have not had but keel off but had to fabricate keel brackets to keep mine from falling off (they had the structural integrity of damp cardboard). You can reach me off list at popsla@yahoo.com.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Keel

I have never experienced a problem like this but I am going to add my two cents worth. It would be hard to remove the broken part of the bolt out of the keel but you might try an easy out type screw removal. If that fails then the next solution is to drill and tap a new hole but going that deep is going to be the trick. Try calling around a small foundry and or machine shop to see if they can help you as you have removed the keel. Be careful as that sucker is heavy. IF you do have to insert a new bolt, make sure to fill in the old hole on the keel and in the hull. When reattaching, use 5200 liberally and let it ooze out. You can clean with acetone but prefer alcohol as it is safer.Please keep me posted on this one.lCrazy Dave3 Condon My spelling is pre kindergarden. Ha!