Digging out Keel bolts

[pandos]

Hi I want to remove keel from Elizabethan 29, it is external cast iron.

The keel bolts are glassed over inside the bilge, under the keel I can see indentations in the casting as if a threaded insert was fitted up into the base of the keel..

Question. how do these keel bolts work, are they Bolts up from underneath with nuts inside the boat or are they bolts threaded down into the keel,

What do I do if I shear one off.

I need the keel off so that I can move / manoeuvre the boat into my garden to do a refit.

all help appreciated

Tony.

 

[sailorman]

Almost certainly you have to expose the nuts in the the bilge that are glassed over, the mat will be easy to remove once you get a chisel between it and the hull it should peel back

Hi I want to remove keel from Elizabethan 29, it is external cast iron.

The keel bolts are glassed over inside the bilge, under the keel I can see indentations in the casting as if a threaded insert was fitted up into the base of the keel..

Question. how do these keel bolts work, are they Bolts up from underneath with nuts inside the boat or are they bolts threaded down into the keel,

What do I do if I shear one off.

I need the keel off so that I can move / manoeuvre the boat into my garden to do a refit.

all help appreciated

Tony.

 

[Keith 66]

Dont do it! by all means knock a bolt out to check its ok, (90% chance it will be fine) but taking the keel of just to move the boat is crazy, better to build a decent cradle to hold the boat as it is. Remember you will need a cradle to hold the keel & one to hold the boat anyway.

 

[30boat]

It sounds a bit drastic to me.It can be done of course but if the fit of the keel is sound it's a pity to break it.

 

[jwilson]

On a GRP boat taking the keel off is not a trivial exercise. The keelbolts are normally threaded studs, set into the iron keel.

In THEORY you just chip off the glass-fibre cover inside the bilge to expose the nuts, and undo the nuts. Then lift the hull off the (chocked-up securely) keel. Refit is the reverse of the above, with new sealant between iron keel and hull.

Real life is not like the theory. Ask a boatyard what they would charge to take off and refit the keel for you, and they will be most unlikely to give you a fixed price quote - they know far too well that various things can go wrong - you can end up doing damage to hull and/or keelbolts just getting it off.

Unless there are any signs that there is something wrong with the keelbolts leave them well alone. The "draw a keelbolt to check" advice often given more applies to wooden boats where the risk of keelbolt corrosion is much greater. Avoid it if you can with a GRP boat.

 

[pandos]

Thanks for the advice, yes in an ideal world I would move boat as is, but access is the issue, I have to do major work on boat and it is best in my back garden where I can work away in spare time, I cannot crane it in and it will need to come in under an arch, and up a steep driveway, with limited space outside .

I had thought about a custom trailer, bolted in place of the keel and with the weight reduced by 1.4t this would make the whole affair well balanced and easier to move with a jeep to pull it into the driveway.

Tony