How long before I have to worry ?

[Norman_E]

The postings below about keel bolts raise a question. My boat like many others has the keel fitted with studs and nuts, which are the glassed over. The boat is now over 8 years old and when I bought it the surveyor made no comment about keel bolt removal or inspection. The question is how many years old does the boat have to be before it becomes necessary to inspect the studs for waisting?

 

[tillergirl]

Ah, the 'bit of string' question. Well to start the ball rolling, TG's failed bolt I reckon was original, so it lasted 40 years - The one I replaced ten years earlier because I was re-engining was absolutely fine. I replaced it again because the cost of the bolt is nothing in proportion to the effort and cost of the removal.

Sage people with wooden boats on the Classic forum talk about checking every ten years. But then this is probably easier with a wooden boat if it has bolts rather than studs (horrid inventions of the devil), since ten year old bolts tend not to be too difficult to remove whereas 40 year old ones kinda get fixed in their ways.

I would have thought a well made GRP boat that hasn't had its keel strained eg by impact is going to last longer but I stress that's a feeling rather than based on any evidence. The bolts won't waste/waist (which is it) if they don't get wet.

 

[Norman_E]

Thanks for that. I too wondered about wasteing or waisting.
I do not even know if my keel studs are plain steel, galvanised steel or stainless, so I suppose I ought to find that out first. I think I might be most worried about stainless steel because the others will give the game away by visibly rusting, whereas I think that stainless steel can look perfectly OK right up to the day that it fails completely. Am I right?

 

[uforea]

The keel on my boat (ufo31) is held on by stainless nuts and bolts. The keel is lead so if I do have a problem I won't get a tell tale streak of rust at the Hull/Keel joint.
The bolts come down into a square "box" in the keel itself where a nut and washer are screwed on the same as inside. This box is then filled with bits of lead which have been hammered in very tight to seal it. I cannot keep the heads of the nuts in the bilge dry because with a keel stepped mast rain comes down the inside which is annoying. Will this be causing a corrosion problem and should I glass them over? Also, how do I test if the keel is loose, can't just grab hold of it and give it a good shake.
Ted.
Ah, Norman, you posted as I was typing.

 

[Cliveshep]

Re: How long before I have to worry ? Waste or waist?

Suspect if the metal wastes the bolt will waist, i.e shrink in the corrosian area.

I know, I know, nobody likes a smart Alec!!!!

 

[SvenglishTommy]

I think many boats from the 70's still have the original keel fixings, how many incidents of keels falling off have you come across? I have heard of boats losing their keels, but only new boats or due to a massive collision. Never due to corroded keel bolts. Has anyone else any examples of this?

 

[Chris_Robb]

I am just purchasing an Ocean lord - the surveyor has suggested that we pull 2 studs (stainless) as the keel as suffered electrolitic corrosion (bulby foamy mounds of rust) from stary current in the marina. He is worried by the interaction of the stainless to cast iron apparently. We will see what they are like in a couple of days. Any one know whether hi tensile steel would be better than stainless?

 

[Dino0808]

[ QUOTE ]
The postings below about keel bolts raise a question. My boat like many others has the keel fitted with studs and nuts, which are the glassed over. The boat is now over 8 years old and when I bought it the surveyor made no comment about keel bolt removal or inspection. The question is how many years old does the boat have to be before it becomes necessary to inspect the studs for waisting?

[/ QUOTE ]

We had this some years ago on a leisure 23,our surveyor wanted 1 removing for inspection,a second surveyors opinion said this was not necessary with glassed in keel bolts!I guess there's no defining answer.Our insurance company was happy with the surveyors reccomendation so we went with surveyor no.2 who didn't require withdrawing a bolt.It comes down to what you yourself are comfy with i think.

 

[Piddy]

One was pulled on ours at 12 years old. M20 Mild steel with no trace of errosion. It was bent but we (and the surveyor) agreed that it happened when orginally fitted.

I might pull (a different) one if asked for in a survey - otherwise not.

Cheers

 

[clyst]

A yacht lost its keel off Devon last week . Capsized. 5 crew ,4 rescued 1 missing . It does happen !!

 

[simonfraser]

it does happen, but not v often, x ray it & hopefully stop there

how many times do you have to drive to the yard to do the work, prob just as dangerous, oh and you have to drive to go to work to earn the money etc.

 

[SvenglishTommy]

Was it due to coroded keel bolts? This is a subject I'm very interested in as I'm pretty sure my keel bolts are original(30 years +), and are not glassed in, and they swim in bilge water all the time.

It's like the 'when should I replace the rigging' question. I think my rigging may also be original, and despite the fact I check it from top to bottom every year, I am still convinced the mast will go and the keel will drop off every time the wind picks up. (Although I did smash it into a rock at 3 knots last year and it didn't seem to mind at all)