Pretty much as Dennis says, the fiberglass probably does compress a little. The fact is, that they do get loose as we all know. However that happens, they need to be kept quite snug. If you can imagine, having loose bolts and you tip your boat over 50° and imagine that lever flopping back and forth, compressing on a few inches of your glass stub.. it's one hell of a lever. In one of my recent posts on this, I mentioned something from the Tartan list on the subject. On there I saw a post from a friend of mine, who said you should never tighten your keel bolts. It was all I could do to not jump in there and say something, but amazingly, I refrained. But the fact is, if you tighten your keekbolts to the required torque, and they don't turn then everything is hunky-dory. What's wrong with that? If they do turn, then you know you had a problem. I don't understand how that could not be self-evident. But having said that, the keel should be so tight that it is a completely solid part of the boat, with absolutely no movement. The first time you see a check mark on your new boats keel, you know too late it probably should have been tightened, (unless you had a hell of a grounding) Not tightening your bolts is like pouring a concrete driveway, and not putting saw cuts in it because you didn't see crack the next day. You know sooner or later you're going to get cracks. So you'd better prepare for them..
Bill Coleman On Sun, Sep 25, 2022 at 11:41 AM Joe Della Barba via CnC-List < cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > A quick update: > > Pretty much every nut needed tightening. I can’t recall exactly when I did > it last, but it was probably at least 5-10 years ago. Water that was > getting in the bilge is no longer getting in 😊 > > This raises a question: I cannot imagine that these nuts are backing off, > so why is this a maintenance thing? I would think they would stay once set? > > * next time I am using a torque multiplier, my arms are still sore! > > > > > > Joe Della Barba > > Coquina C&C 35 MK I > > Kent Island MD USA > > > > > > > > > >
