Dferr
Member II
After reading all of the posts of RT's keel drop, I was dreading this, fearing it would be the worst. I went down last week to build the frame around the keel, as RT did.
We went down today. The travel lift was in place. They lifted her up about 2" and the keel didn't move. I was prepared and armed with everything - sawsall, wedges, hammers, floor jack. I started to notice a small gap in the end of the keel. I hammered in a few wedges and it began to widen. I then jumped back and ran away as it dropped right out! As you can see in the photo, I do have one corroded bolt, but the yard guys and I decided it's really not that big of a deal and we're going to just bolt it right back up as is. Our yard fiberglass repair guy, Joel of Fiberdex, couldn't believe how many keel boats were used on the keel. He said our boat is overbuilt and we shouldn't worry about a little corrosion on one bolt. If the bolts had been worse, I was planning to get them welded as RT did or use a coupling nut, but they really didn't seem that bad.
I then used a high speed grinder with a wire wheel to clean everything up. At this point, I believed I was ready to re-bed and re-bolt the keel back up, but as I was cleaning out all of the holes in the boat, I noticed the hole with the corroded bolt did some damage to the fiberglass as well. I plan on doing some grinding and re-glassing of that area before I bolt it up. It shouldn't be a big deal.
I hope it all goes back together as easily as it came apart. I'll keep you posted if any new problems arise.
Don
We went down today. The travel lift was in place. They lifted her up about 2" and the keel didn't move. I was prepared and armed with everything - sawsall, wedges, hammers, floor jack. I started to notice a small gap in the end of the keel. I hammered in a few wedges and it began to widen. I then jumped back and ran away as it dropped right out! As you can see in the photo, I do have one corroded bolt, but the yard guys and I decided it's really not that big of a deal and we're going to just bolt it right back up as is. Our yard fiberglass repair guy, Joel of Fiberdex, couldn't believe how many keel boats were used on the keel. He said our boat is overbuilt and we shouldn't worry about a little corrosion on one bolt. If the bolts had been worse, I was planning to get them welded as RT did or use a coupling nut, but they really didn't seem that bad.
I then used a high speed grinder with a wire wheel to clean everything up. At this point, I believed I was ready to re-bed and re-bolt the keel back up, but as I was cleaning out all of the holes in the boat, I noticed the hole with the corroded bolt did some damage to the fiberglass as well. I plan on doing some grinding and re-glassing of that area before I bolt it up. It shouldn't be a big deal.
I hope it all goes back together as easily as it came apart. I'll keep you posted if any new problems arise.
Don