Leak Prevention
George: You don't want to pin the keel down. If you ever even touched the bottom with the keel pinned, the pin would shear, or something would surely be damaged. I do pin my rudder down with a 1/8 inch diameter nylon pin, but that's different, beacuse I can get to all of the parts if I ever shear the pin. Anyhow, I built up the area around the lock-down bolt with silicone sealer, after lubricating it with a product from the hardware store called "Grease Stick". It's a waxy lubricant, that keeps all the water from coming in. I then fill the threads with this every spring, and it keeps the water from coming in through the threads all summer. As to the other leak, by the cable, I'm working on that one myself, again. I suspect that it's coming from the port drain, so I wrapped a tissue around the portion of the hose under the drain on the port side, and will look at it next week to see if it disolves the tissue when it gets wet. I'll let you know if this method of tracking down the source of the leak works. I'm currently only getting about 6 ounces per week, and it has really been raining "back east". Aldo
