30+ rebedding keel

C

csoule13

Member III
There's an old deck hand at the marina who is going to help us lower the keel, clean it up and reseal the joint. His description of the process goes something like this:
- Loosen keel bolts
- Raise the boat by slooowly adjusting the height of the sticks
- Open the crack, clean, add sealant
- Reverse process

After reading up on this here, in particular in this thread, http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?1042-Keel-to-Hull-joint-repair-on-84-30, I'm wondering if this isn't a little too neat and simple. Isn't the 30+ a keel-stepped mast, and won't doing this w/ out dropping the mast be, well, bad?

The search engine has been helpful here, but there's a basic foundation of knowledge of how this stuff ties together that is eluding me.

- Chris
 
Loren Beach

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Back in '00, when the yard lifted our boat off of the keel, they had it in the slings of their travelift. The nuts were all removed.
They went up maybe a foot or a bit more. The heavy keel was in held in a welded steel cage/box with wood wedges shimming it solidly in place and perfectly upright.
The guys told me that it was common for keels to remain adhered by sealant alone and sometimes they would have to bump it with a big hammer after it was up an inch. Ours came apart with no violence used at all.

Pictures in an old thread here.
The bottom was cleaned with solvents. Top of keel well cleaned as well.

I do not know what brand of sealant was used to bed it again -- lots of it oozed out when the hull was lower back down over the bolts. I believe that new SS large/strong washers and nuts were used but it's been too long to remember for sure.
Prior thread:
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoex...8-Keel-Bolt-Design-(and-Repair)&referrerid=28


Loren
 
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F

Frank Langer

1984 Ericson 30+, Nanaimo, BC
I think all Ericson 30+ boats have deck-stepped masts. Ours does for sure, and I've never heard one that was keel-stepped.
Frank
 
Cory B

Cory B

Sustaining Member
When we dropped our keel, the (failing) sealant still held it on tight after the nuts were removed. Even a hammer didn't break it loose. It took a couple of hours of jiggling in the travellift for it to break free.

Also, the yard we used at the time had a "no masts" rule for dropping keels. They were concerned about the righting moment of the boat even on land.
 
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