Torque on the hard or in the water

[Canonshooternb]

I have a 1985 Pearson 28-2 boat and looking for the recommended method of torquing the keel bolts. Is it best to torque them when the boat is on the hard sitting on the keel OR When the boat is put in the water do you torque them.
Also is there a recommended torque used for all keel bolts?

Thanks

 

[fred1diver]

good question

 

[Terry Cox]

My vote would be while on the hard. I would obtain the torque setting from the boat maker.

 

[Benny17441]

Keels are always installed and torqued with the boat in the hard but bolts are commonly re-torqued with the boat in the water. Either method should not make a significant difference in holding force; after all the keel will be in contact with the hull and suspended by the bolts. The boat manufacturer specs are intended to prevent crushing the sandwiched portion of the hull while maintaining some uniformity in the clamping force between the various bolts. When all the bolts are similarly torqued they will evenly distribute the weight of keel among all. Problems arise when some bolts are loaded more than others.

 

[Gunni]

On the hard. It would be part of a thorough inspection of the keel- hull joint and the condition of the bolts themselves. Extract each bolt individually, inspect and clean the threads, use the recommended anti-seize, replace and retorque to specification. Not doing that procedure risks snapping off a corroded frozen bolt at spec torque. Can't help you with the Pearson specs.

 

[Canonshooternb]

Thanks everyone for the input. My next search will be for the Torque specs

 

[alexco38]

https://www.fastenal.com/content/feds/pdf/Torque of Stainless Steel, Non ferrous Torque.pdf

https://www.fastenal.com/content/feds/pdf/Torque of Metric Stainless Steel.pdf

 

[Capt jgw]

The boat builder should have their own torque specs. The ones published by the bolt maker assumes your bolting two pieces of steel together. Here we are fastening iron or lead to fiberglass. Big difference. The published torque for a 3/4" stainless bolt is 127 ft lbs, I don't think that would hurt the fiberglass and even my cheap Harbor Freight torque wrench goes that high.
If you were using grade 8 bolts the value for that is close to 400 ft lbs and you would need special tools to do it. I doubt a fiberglass keel stub could take that. So, if the factory specs are available, use them. The builder of my boat went out of business a couple of centuries ago so I doubt I could find those specs. My bolts are galvanized steel which should be good for around 350 ft lbs but I'm going with 120.