OMG check those keel bolts!

[lw395]

To find out if they are through bolts get a hollow nosed punch and see if you can knock the lower part of the bolt out. If so it's just a lift out and insert new bolts, no need to drop the keel (although you might want to remake the joint)

Or even on a scrubbing grid.
I guess you need to have the replacement ready if you do that.
Dropping the keel is not always trivial. Possibly not something I'd be rushing to do before the alleged sailing season.

 

[lw395]

Yes, you can remove the bolts and replace that way, although if they are seriously waisted it can be difficult to remove the lower part. I did this on a similar boat, but the replacement bolts went the same way very quickly as that does not solve the problem of getting water in the joint.

A lot of wooden boats the wooden keel is always wet. The keels rarely fall off though.

 

[Tranona]

A lot of wooden boats the wooden keel is always wet. The keels rarely fall off though.

Quite right, but based on my experience dropping the keel and replacing the bolts with good sealing is nowhere near as difficult as it might be with a "traditional" constructed boat with a deep profiled keel. I was able to move mine around quite easily using jacks and rollers to get underneath and attach a 9" deep wooden deadwood and a 1" thick steel plate to compensate for the difference in weight between the old ST and new Yanmar, then roll the keel back and re-attach it.

 

[Tiller Girl]

Here's what happened quite a long time again. Ten years after replacement they were fine.

There is no evidence by OP of studs (in the sense of screwing into the ballast keel) in my view also. So when you have a wasted bolt left in the bottom of the ballast keel when will that start to leak?

Actually moving the wasted bolt from below can be absolutely easy (sometimes).

 

[fisherman]

A lot of wooden boats the wooden keel is always wet. The keels rarely fall off though.

In a local FV the bolts degraded, every time he got in a bit of weather she started leaking, each time he put her on the beach and got the shipwright to caulk the garboard seam. He was told there was no point, she was sat on the keel and all closed up, the bolts needed changing. In the end that's what happened. She was only 20 years old or so. I have a feeling the old 'black iron' bolts were better, and they used to put them in with tar and oakum. Certainly the way Sika products adhere I would give that a go.

 

[fisherman]

Actually moving the wasted bolt from below can be absolutely easy.

Yes, if he turns the nut either the bolt will turn and loosen or the nut will draw the bolt as happened topside.

 

[RichardS]

Or even on a scrubbing grid.
I guess you need to have the replacement ready if you do that.
Dropping the keel is not always trivial. Possibly not something I'd be rushing to do before the alleged sailing season.

I was working on my boat in the yard in 2014 and there was a large monohull opposite in a cradle and the yard guys were dropping the iron keel for some reason. The keel either went up into the hull molding or was fitted onto some kind of former which went down inside it.

Either way, the keel wasn't going to drop easily so one of the big guys took huge sledgehammer with a metre long handle and a 5 kg head or something and was swinging that monster first at the leading edge and then the trailing edge to gradually knock it loose.

The noise was deafening and I remember thinking "that's another reason why I like my Grp-keeled cat"

Richard