Leaks in keel housing around lockdown bolt.

[Greg Dood]

I recently bought a '71 model in very good condition...other than one problem I just discovered: It leaks in the keel housing around the lockdown bolt. On closer inspection, it looks like it may have been damaged and repaired some time back, as the water is clearly coming through the fiberglass around the lockdown bolt (not just around the bolt threads, which I understand is normal). Anyone had a similar experience or have any suggestions on possible repairs? I plan to haul out the boat this weekend and put it back on the trailer until I figure out what to do.

 

[Jason]

Lock down bolt

Greg, Your problem is very common. You should simply be able to "pack" i.e. (smear a bunch) marine grease on the threads of the lock down bolt.This should solve the problem.Happy sailingJason

 

[David Allen]

lock down bolt

I recently purchased a Catalina 22. The previous ower repaired a similar problem by using a couple of teflon sheets cut to fit around the lockdown bolt and act as spacers, I haven't seen them myself but he said they are a few inches in diameter with a drilled hole to snuggly fit the lockdown bolt and glued into place. Apparently the swing keel does normally move slightly side-to-side and water does find it way in past the bolt. But so far so good, I haven't seen any water at all in the boat since this repair was made.Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[Rex Watson #13870 1987]

leak

I had the exact problem on my 87' C22. I took some fiber glass putty and covered the area where the leak was. It worked but I consider this just a temp. fix. The real problem is in the keel strap. I was told by Catalina Direct that this is the onlt way to fix the problem. Grind down the glass and replace the keel strap...winter project

 

[Gary Coffey]

keel bolt leak

Greg, I had the exact same problem. the leak was not around the treads but the glassed area around them. The strip that is but in buy the factory is only 1 inck wide this does not give you much to bite too when trying to glass it in. What I did was weld a 1/2 inch ss nut dead center onto a 1/8x3x6 inch ss plate I then drilled three holes on each side of the nut ,no order here. Use about a1/4 bit then 1/2 inch bit but do not go thru wilth 1/2 inch You want it shaped like a cone . I then used Marine tex and glued it in the correct location . the tex comes thru the cones and helps hold it very strongly. I then waited 24 hrs. I then glassed it in with 4 progressivly larger pieces of mat and then a fifth layer on woven cloth. I also glassed in an addional brace about a foot away from the 1 stock one.I think the whole process took me about 2-3 hrs not including the time to make the plate up. I now use open gear lube to seal the bolt it is a tar base very thick and very sticky. It will take a mac truck to take this out. Hope this helps, It was quite easy to do really. Best of luck

 

[Barry Broyles]

Leaky keel bolt fix

Greg, I bought my 1973 C22 about 8 years ago and quickly noticed water coming in around the keel locking bolt. First I tried using water proof marine grease, but that only slowed it down. About half way into the second season I noticed rust stains around small cracks in the fiberglass near the bolt. So I probed around the cracks with a screwdriver and chipped out layers of delaminated fiberglass. I than used a 4" angle grinder/sander with course sanding discs and ground down to solid glass. The keel strap with the nut welded to it was in fair shape so I used my sander and a dremmel tool to remove all the rust. I than laid 2 layers of fiberglass cloth with 1" holes around the bolt hole and behind the strap/nut using west system epoxy and used a hydraulic bottle jack protected with release film to press the strap/nut into the wet epoxy and let it set up overnight. The next day I built up layers of fiber glass cloth again with 3/4" holes over the bolt hole and epoxy until it wwas 1/2" thick. I also Kept putting epoxy into the hole and into the inside of the nut to seal the glass cloth edges. After letting this setup for a couple of hours I ran a tap through the hole to thread the epoxy and chase the nut threads, Than replaced the keel locking bolt using marine grease. The whole job took about 6 hours total, and I have not had one drop of come through in the last 6 years.Barry P. BroylesNorth East, MdLTBROYT6D@cs.com