Having noticed the "smile" on my keel, I was planning on doing "something" about it this spring. First retorquing the bolts is now on my #1 list of todos!
I have bought last year a 250 lbs/ft torque wrench but did not come to use it as I had too many unanswered questions on the process of torquing keel bolts. Should I only retorque bolts when on the hard? I assume it is done working on a single bolt at a time. I've read the procedure is: remove the bolt, lubrify, torque back, is this correct? Then what type of lubricant should I use? How does one reaches the bolts at the bottom of the bilge (about 2' deep)? Is it possible to apply enough torque 2' wrench? Is there anything special I need as far as the socket is concerned? Thanks in advance for any advice! Sébastien Lemieux Merlot X - C&C 30 mk2 1987 Mooney Bay - Lake Champlain On Dec 3, 2012, at 10:15, Rick Brass wrote: > I note that you’ve not retorqued the keel bolts in 7 years, and I would > suggest the this probably needs to be done before you try anything else.. > > My owner’s manuals don’t specify an interval for retorquing, but I try to do > it every two years or so on both boats. The exception is the bolt under the > mast step on my 38, which can only be accessed when the mast is out. That > bolt was retorqued in 2005, and again in 2011 when the boat was rerigged. > > If you have a resilient sealer (like 5200) between the keel and the stub, you > will get a tiny bit of side to side motion in the keel when you go sailing. > Over time, the torque on the keel bots can be reduced, lateral motion can > increase, and you end up with the smile, and potentially with leaks. IMHO, > torquing the bolts should be the first step in any cosmetic attention you > give to the exterior of the hull to keel joint. If the yards that worked on > your boat didn’t do this, that might be the reason the repairs were not > successful. > > My owner’s manuals (admittedly for boats older than your 35-3) indicate that > C&C originally used thickened epoxy in the layer between keel and stub, and > that the bolt torque would force the sealer into the hole around the keel > bolts. I suspect that the thickened epoxy gave a hard layer of sealant that > in combination with the fairly high torque on the bolts minimized the side to > side motion of the keel. > > I guess I have been pretty luck vis-à-vis keel problems on my boats. On > Belle, I fixed the smile the first winter I had her, and have torque the > boats fairly regularly since. No smile when she was hauled for bottom paint > last November – after 14 years or so that I’ve owned her. Imzadi had a slight > smile when hauled for engine work this past summer, but then she has a layer > of 5200 in the keel joint. Maybe it’s time to torque the bolts again. > > > Rick Brass > Imzadi -1976 C&C 38 mk1 > la Belle Aurore -1975 C&C 25 mk1 > Washington, NC > > > From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Tim > Goodyear > Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2012 2:54 PM > To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com > Subject: Stus-List Keel stub cracks > > Hello all 35-3 owners - I'm looking for some advice, especially from those > who have re-habbed their keels on this model... > > I was checking on Mojito this morning, and noticed beads of moisture in two > areas; a spot at the top of the keel trailing edge and an 8" hairline crack > on the port side at hull / keel stub (almost exactly where the mast step is > internally). Would this have been enough for you to go ahead with major keel > surgery? > > Rear of keel > I've been trying to resolve this for a while; two separate boat yards have > had a go at if, and the area is now solid fiberglass / epoxy, but still a > tiny crack / area of moisture. There was water in the bilge just aft of the > rear keel bolt (I removed the floorboards and sponged the area dry). Water > would not normally stay in that area, but the boat is tilted back a little on > the stands. I have not had the keel bolts torqued in 7 years (since I bought > Mojito). > > Mast Step area > This is the first year I've noticed moisture in that area; there have been > hairline cracks in the antifouling before. The mast is stepped and I can't > access that area through the mast step, which appears sound. > > Thanks, > > Tim > Mojito > 1984 C&C 35-3 > Branford, CT > > _______________________________________________ > This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album > http://www.cncphotoalbum.com > CnC-List@cnc-list.com
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