E 26 keel bolts?

Is the keel of the of the late 80's E 26 encapsulted or bolt on. No keel bolts are visible in the bilge.



Can anyone shed some light on this.

Thanks,

I have a 1988 E26 and the keelbolts are plainly visible in each of the bilges.

I'm wondering if you have some previous owner modification which may be covering them?

Pat

Keel bolts? I don't think so.

guys, Speaking from the perspective of a former 1979 E25+ owner and with pretty certain knowledge that the E26 was a slight variation of the former, the hull and deck being the same, I can say beyond any doubt that my boat had an encapsulated keel and as far I know so does the E 26. I too had bolt -like looking things in my keel but I'm told that they are what remains of the lifting eyes used to drop the cast lead keel into the integral fiberglass hull/keel. Surely there are those out there reading this right now who can confirm my outrageous statements above or debunk them, setting me in my place. Cheers, GLyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA

Glyn,

I too thought the later E26's were a variant of the E25+ hull.

I always thought bolt on because of the Ericson sales brochure from 1988 which has a drawing that seems to indicate the keel being bolted on (on pages 22 & 23).

The attached two pictures are of 1988 E26 hull #358. Note the horizontal line that goes all the way around the keel. I may be mistaken, but wouldn't this indicate a bolt on keel?

Pat

Perhaps there was a change in ballast design between the earlier E-25+, the next E-26 and the late-80's E-26?

LB

Doh!

All, I knew there'd be someone to set me in my place, I just didn't figure on a bunch of you doin' it. Given that there's already been mention of two different length keels on the E26 and glaring evidence in the form of the photos (boy am I busted), I'd have to say that there's no comparison whatsoever between my E25+ with internal lead and the E26 that for all the world, appears to have a bolt on keel. Does anyone have a good recipe for crow or can you at least tell me what temp to set the oven to? Looks like I'm going to need to dust off the old pellet gun because I can hear one out the window as I type this. Ain't this list a kick? Glyn

They are not too bad deep fried, I would take it to the local KFC and ask tor a big favor! The worst that could happen is your bird gets mixed up and you end up with some of theirs! Enjoy Edd

Yup, one of the updates in going from the E25+ to the E26 was converting from an internal to an external, bolt-on keel. This involved adding a keel "stubbie" to the bottom of the hull. IIRC, we also produced new deck and interior liner tooling at the same time.
-Roger

Roger Brown, Naval Architect, Inc.
www.rbrown-navalarchitect.com

Roger,

Do you remember any of the details of the deck tooling changes?

I think one of them was to accomodate the movement of the mainsheet traveller from the bridgedeck to the top of the cabin.

Pat

I have an E26, built in 1987. It has the deep keel. I've wondered about the keel joint myself. It sure looks like it is bolted on, but no nuts are visible in the bilge sump. The sump is much shallower then the line on Surabaya's boat. I had a 1989 E28 with a wing before this boat, and I can't remember if the nuts were visible. What would one do if the joint developed a leak? How the heck could the bolts be loosened and retightened??

The hull number listing I have shows the production of the E26-III (200 series hull numbers) ending in 1987 and the production of the E26-IV's (300 series hulls) beginning in 1987.

The boat in the pictures I posted to show the keel is hull #358 and belongs to a good friend. My boat is hull #370 and both boats have similar construction. My boat has three bilge openings in the sole. All three are interconnected and the forward two have a liner while the deeper stern one does not. The keel bolts are in all three bilges.

Maybe Roger could shed some light on when the changeovers were made.

Pat

Pat,
It’s been quite a while and my memory is kind of fuzzy, but in looking at the E25+ and E26 brochures a few deck changes come to mind:
-moved traveler forward to companionway
-moved deck hatch forward to front sloped face of cabin house
-added a small ventilation hatch just aft of mast
-changed companionway hatch to sliding acrylic with a “garage”
-changed rubrail from large PVC type to small aluminum extrusion
-added more drains to toerail

There may have been some changes to the cockpit seats and/or coamings, but they don’t show up well in the brochures.

I’m pretty sure that all these changes plus the bolt-on keel update were made during the conversion from the E25+ to the E26-III in 1984. IIRC the subsequent E26-IV, introduced in about 1987, was intended to be a less costly version of the E26 and involved relatively minor changes to interior styling and finish. Not positive about that though
-Roger

Roger Brown, Naval Architect, Inc.
www.rbrown-navalarchitect.com

1987 E 26 keel bolt?

My confusion comes from the add litature and visual observation.

One company brocher states it is a encapsulated keel (E26 brocher on this web site) and then another spec sheet for the E-26-300 says it is a bolt (w/5 bolts) on through the TFG...?

The 1987 boat I'm investigating is hull #300. On examination it has a very shallow bilge with the TFG visible. However there are not any keel bolts visible in any of the 3 bilge inspection ports. If you reach around or use a mirror to see under the floor boards not bolt or studs a visible. There is no evidence of owner modification to mask bolt location. Also no visible exterior seam at base of the keel stub (as mention above). PO states it is an encapsulated ballest.

Did the tooling/modification take place w/ the 1988 and newer E-26's?

thanks

Roger,

Thanks for answering the question about the deck changes. I think one of the cost items that changed in the E26-III to E26-IV was the amount of interior teak that was used...notably above the setees, quarterberth and stern bulkheads.

Do you have any thoughts about the two boats (both 1987) that have indicated that they don't see the keelbolts in the bilge? Maybe the place of manufacture? I know that hull #358 and probably my own hull #370 were Mexico boats.

Pat

Keel bolts or no keel bolts?

Hey guys, Does this mean that I can turn the oven off? Glyn

Glyn,

Turn the oven off!



I actually worked at a KFC when I was in High School in Walla Walla, WA back in 1973. I had hunting buddies that came to the back door one Friday night with freshly killed, plucked and cleaned Pheasants. They asked if I could fry them up and I did. Extra Crispy. Don't think I would have fried a Crow for you though.

My '87 E26 looks just like the one in the color brochure on this website. Has the extra interior teak around the ports and the rear bulkhead, etc., as well as the wide gunnel stripe. I have a Universal engine, not the Westerbeke described in the literature, however...I don't know if this is significant. When I get a chance, I will check the hull number. The literature specs describe the ballast as "cast lead internally mounted". My boat shows no evidence of an external seam as on the boat that Surabaya shows. I am assuming that I have one of the last boats with internal ballast.
I suspect that the change to externally bolted on keels was to allow for the winged keel option that started in 1988 or 89.
I had, some years ago, a 1989 E28 with an external wing that was built in Mexico. I don't know if the 28's ever had internal ballast, but the later boats with wings certainly had to be external!
I had alot of grief with the glass work on that boat! The two tone deck developed all kinds of huge cracks, there were serious voids, bad hull blisters below the waterline, and vast areas of the hull behind the liner that never fully cured! I wonder if I am alone in this...I always thought that this affliction was limited to, and commonplace in boats built in the Mexican plant.

Stobias,

You may be onto something about the change in keels being done with the E26-III to E26-IV change in 1987...especially with the cost reduction that Roger mentioned and the two different keels. There are a couple of caveats though: Roger's (who used to work at Ericson as Chief Engineer) recollection was that it was part of the earlier changeover from the E25+ to the E26-III and Seakpower indicated that he is looking at hull #300 which would have been the first of the E26-IVs if the published numbering is correct.

Hull #358 and my Hull #370 have so far (knocking on a lot of wood) not suffered from blisters, although I know that Hull #363 did from discussions with it's present owner. I've crawled all over #358 & my own boat and they have not had the kinds of build quality issues that you indicate you had on your E28.

Pat

Guess it’s my turn to eat a little crow. The responses here seem to indicate that the changeover from internal to external ballast occurred in ’87 or ’88, well after the E25+ to E26 conversion in ’84 as I had assumed (you know what they say about assuming). I remember making the change to a bolt-on keel, but the timing is harder to recall.

Hope it tastes like chicken!
-Roger


Roger Brown, Naval Architect, Inc.
www.rbrown-navalarchitect.com

No crow or other fowl required by anybody....even Glyn! I'm glad everybody took the time to add their experience/knowledge to the thread.

It has been a very interesting thread to learn more about the design evolution that took place on the E26 over the years.

So to summarize what appears to be the answer to the original question...the 25+ had an encapsulated keel as did the E26 III's (200 series). Sometime early in the E26 IV's (300 series) the change was made to bolt on keels.

Pat