Yikes!! My keel is loose!

[Johnny P]

I grounded hard this season. I took on no water and the keel bolts looked fine from the inside, but when I pulled her out of the water this morning, I was able to move the keel from side to side with my hand (just a little. Has anyone else delt with this?

 

[Jon Bastien]

Mine tried to fall off once...

Shortly before my wife and I sailed our '78 H25 to the Dry Tortugas, we decided to have the boat hauled to replace the seacocks and touch up the bottom paint. While the boat was in the Travel Lift, the keel seperated itself from the hull by about 1/4" (Yikes!!). As it turns out, the keel bolts were only hand tight... The boatyard lowered the keel, cleaned out the bedding compound, loaded a large tube of 5200 into the space between the hull and boat, then jacked the keel back up. After the 5200 cured, they sanded the joint smooth and applied the bottom paint. I haven't had so much as a drip or wiggle out of the keel since. The parts and labor for this cost me about $500 in the boatyard, and the boat was on the hard for about 4 days. I plan to check on them every once in a while (3 months or so) to ensure they're still tight.Good luck, and let us know if you need more info...--Jon BastienH25 'Adagio'

 

[Julian Sandford]

No keel?

Fit toestraps in the cockpit, and/or a trapeze?

 

[Tim Leighton]

SERIOUS STUFF HERE

Johnny: I'm assuming you have a fixed keel not a centerboard on the 25. If so this is a potentially serious problem and I would run, not walk to your yard manager and have them take a good look. The last things you want is to have either the mast fall down or keel fall off. A keel falling off is the worse of those two since in no time the boat will be upside down! It may be as simple as a torque job on the keel boats, but after a hard grounding, that is more unlikely. You may have sheared a couple of the keel bolts. You didn't say what year your boat is, but on some older boats, water got to lower grade keel bolts and rusted badly (a friend had to replace his entire keel but luckily before it fell off). The good news is that your insurance should cover any damage you find. Good luck and let us know what you/they find.Tim Leighton