Keel Bolts

[SteveB_Sigma33]

I'm planning to inspect my keel bolts, but I'm pondering on what is the best way to do it.

Is it best to do this whilst the boat is afloat undoing one bolt at a time - inspect it then replace it? Or do it when she is in a craddle on land?

Is there anything special that I should do when I replace the bolts?





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[ParaHandy]

if only one bolt is actually holding it on and you go and unscrew that one whilst afloat ... won't be for long (afloat i mean)

better do it on dry land as you sound as though you're expecting something to be wrong ..

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[SteveB_Sigma33]

8 Big bolts, so unless just one bolt is doing all the work it should be okay!

Mind you after the battering we took through a recent force 9 who knows!

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[Twister_Ken]

The easiest (but not neccesarily cheapest) way is to get them x-rayed in situ. Needs to be done ashore, preferably with the boat well away from human life.

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[pandroid]

Apart from the obvious, its better to do it on land as the bolts wont be under tension.

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[vyv_cox]

If the bolts are not under tension there have already been problems.

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[BrendanChandler]

On my boat, the keel bolts are imbedded in the keel and just the top comes through the bottom of the boat and the very large washers, about 3 inches square are tightened up.

It would not be possible to see anything except the top 2 inches of the bolts and the nut, so xray would have been the only way to see.

I had a water leak between the hull and the keel, probably due to a design fault which meant that the hull and the keel did not match exactly. We dropped the keel to insert the filler but that failed. We dropped the keel again and spread about 2 inches of filler on the keel and waited for that to go off before tightening the nuts and that worked well. The filled formed a thick gasket which the bolts tightened in.

Brendan

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