Erik, Fiberglass boats are usually very tight. I replaced all the hoses when I bought our boat for piece of mind. I have an automatic pump, but I switch it off when I leave the boat, as I close all thruhulls too. The pump is the 2000, the biggest that would fit the space. I am piping a smaller 650 that is located lower and intended to be left powered up.
I'm an HVAC maintenance mechanic with 40 years in the field and believe in using natural forces like gravity to help me in everything. I tighten fasteners when the pressure is reduced as much as possible or totally off. I'd get all of the wrenches setup first and have the boat hauled. While hanging in the slings, the keel weight may open the joint and you may be able to squirt some 5200 in the crack. Then set the boat on it's keel. Once the weight of the boat is pressing on the keel, climb aboard and first loosen one nut at a time and fill any crevices with 5200. Then snug up the nut. Then tighten the keel bolt nuts to spec or as much as humanly possible, using a length of pipe on the wrench handle. Start from the middle, tightening the largest nuts and work toward the ends and bring the tension up firm and evenly. This method uses the keel weight to help open the joint for new sealant and uses hull weight to compress the joint to allow easy torguing of the nuts. Things you can do prior to haul out: Clean the keel bolt threads. You may want to wire wheel the threads prior to hauling. You may want to spin each nut off one at a time to ensure your wrench setup is foolproof? Lube the threads with Tefgel to prevent SS gauling. Good luck. Chuck Resolute 1990 C&C 34R Atlantic City, NJ ----- Original Message ----- From: "erik hawkeye" <erik_hawk...@yahoo.com> To: "Joel Aronson" <joel.aron...@gmail.com> Cc: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 7:51:56 PM Subject: Re: Stus-List 35-3 Leak Thanks for the welcome! Any issue with tightening in the water? I've read conflicting thoughts on the subject. I'm also hoping based on where the leak is missing the one bolt will be okay until end of season. The PO tells me they were tightened 3 or 4 years ago and rebedded 15 years ago. I was surprised at th he lack of a pump but it made it 28 years without. Erik Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID Joel Aronson <joel.aron...@gmail.com> wrote: Erik, Welcome! Was the keel joint tight before the boat was launched? There is a keel bolt under the mast, but you can reach the others and it sounds like the leak is aft of the mast. Can't believe there was no automatic pump! Joel Sent from my iPad On May 20, 2013, at 5:03 PM, Erik Hillenmeyer < erik_hawk...@yahoo.com > wrote: Hello, Been following on here for a while but never posted. I have a new-to-me 1984 C&C 35 MKIII on Lake Michigan. When we launched six days ago I noticed a large amount of water in the bilge when I would go to the boat. Approximately 2.5 gallons every 24 hours. I have narrowed the leak down to what I assume is a hull/keel joint issue. After checking all the obvious sources for this much water (thru hull, tanks, etc, etc) I finally noticed that all the water was coming from a limber hole in the stringer just forward of the aft most keel bolt. The water is NOTcoming out this limber hole because it's flowing through there from a higher point in the bilge - it's flooding up from underneath the stringer. The bilge area aft of this stringer is dusty dry and I've elminated all other sources of water. The first thing I'm in the process of doing is installing an automatic bilge pump and float switch (PO never had one). I also plan on tightening the keel bolts as soon as I get access to a torque wrench and an extension that can reach the 2 feet to the deepest part of the sump where one of the keel bolts is located. I'm hoping this is some help in stopping or reducing the leak. The sailing season is very short here and hauling out now would cost us a big chunk of sailing, so I'm willing to try anything to stay in. I've thrown this out on some other blogs, but wanted to know if other C&C owners have experienced this issue or have some solutions for getting her through the season. Thanks, Erik _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com
_______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com
