38-200 Keel Bolts - help?

[Kerry Kukucha]

Greetings - I am a new Ericson owner, having purchased a 1988 on the east coast, which recently arrived by truck in North Vancouver - yet to be named but "Buyers Remorse" or "Another Project" might fit. While we realized the boat needed some TLC & elbow greese, every day brings new challenges & bites into summer fun!

It has been suggested that we ought to re-bed the keel & torque the keel bolts prior to stepping the mast, in order to correct a keel "smile". I understand that there are 12 bolts (8x1" & 4x1/2") & can see 8 around the mast step, which will have to come out - question is where are the others? Do we need to remove the sole or woodwork to find the other 4? I have read on previous threads lots of discussion around keels, bolts, etc, but hope someone can answer my novice question?

Thanks in advance & happy 4th of July to our American cousins!

 

[JohnK]

"Buyers Remorse"? Ha! That's the name of my boat! Just kidding - welcome to the Ericson fold and to the joys and pains of 38-200 ownership. I am in my second season with my '87 38-200 and just rebed my leaky keel earlier this spring. As I recall, there are 13 bolts in all: 12 are 1" and one that is 3/4". As you noted, most are in the bilge under the mast step and where the bilge pump lives. The aftmost four live under the sink and are "accessible" through the small door next to the silverware drawer.

To tighten the bolts, you will need 1 1/2" and 1 1/4" deep well sockets, a variety of extensions, a socket u-joint, and torque wrench ($70 300 ft/lb from harborfreight.com). You will be surprised at how many of your nuts are quite loose now - barely hand-tight. Torquing the nuts against fiberglass is not exact due to its somewhat compressible nature so don't worry too much about exact torque figures - just get them somewhere in the real to really tight range. My easy-to-get nuts are around 200 while the ones under the sink are somewhat less due to poor access.

My rebed job involved backing off of all the nuts until flush with the tops of the bolts and completely removing the nuts from the shorter most forward and aft bolts. The travelift then came over and pulled me up a couple of inches. It didn't take much convincing with a big screwdriver before the keel parted company from the hull (quite dramatically) giving me about 1 1/2" of gap between the two. I was very lucky in that all my bolts were in excellent condition - not even a hint of surface rust. Here's hoping yours are too.

After cleaning out the old goop with pressure washer, scrapers, wire brushes, acetone, etc., I squirted in a gallon of two-part polysulfide with a grout bag and had the travelift drop the hull back down. When the hull came down, .99 gallon of the polysulfide squished out of the gap and dribbled down the keel making for a fun clean-up job. I torqued up the nuts to about 50 ft/lbs for 24 hours until the new goop cured and then up to the aforementioned ~200 ft/lbs. The gap was then faired in with filler and the bottom painted.

So far, no more water coming in from the keel but, heh, the season is still young! As noted here and elsewhere, a keel rebed is generally considered a scheduled maintenance activity. Have fun - it's a messy but not terribly difficult job.

 

[Kerry Kukucha]

Thnx John - great info & pic's; very much appreciated.

KK

 

[Chris Miller]

Definitely rebed if you have the time. Ours didn't have that little door, so the guy doing the work just drilled a hole in the sole-- and left it. Gee thanks.

Also, do a good check for corrosion in the bolts while it's down as it will lead to leakage in the future if they are really corroded.

Chris

 

[rwthomas1]

Hey John,
Where do you keep the boat on the hard? I am trying to get a local yard to do the same thing for me this winter. Try to DIY it and save a buck. RT

 

[JohnK]

Hi Rob,
I brought the boat up the Connecticut River to a boatyard in Portland, just south of Hartford. It was cheaper, closer to my house than RI, and away from salt water - so a no-brainer. I like saving a few bucks myself. Basically, the only major costs were the polysulfide and the travelift service (plus the sockets and wrench if you don't have them). The job took all of about 6 hours.

BTW, I still have some viking logos with your name on them!

 

[rwthomas1]

Hey John,
Thanks for the input! I was getting a price on the full rebedding job from Rhode Island Mooring Service, where I plan on storing the boat this winter. There is a local rigger there too so I am trying to do the keel rebed, standing rigging, rudder post inspection, below-deck AP all at once. Oh yeah, and maybe a windlass..... Hearing the way you did it that would save me some bucks for sure and if the keelbolts are in fact toast, well, RIMS already has the boat to do the keel rework. I will ask RIMS if they will just pick her up with a travel lift after the mast is pulled.

Still want the stickers, you going to be around any time soon? Still in Dutch? RT

 

[JohnK]

Hi Rob,
Yeah, still at Dutch. We're getting ready to go to Block for the weekend. If you want to use our mooring this weekend while we're gone, hook up to J5. It's in the northern part of the mooring field, close to the anchorage area. The boatyard guys will see your E38 and think you're me ;-). I'm going to leave a sheet of the stickers with the Dutch Boatyard office if you're in the neighborhood of J'town - just ask for the Ericson stickers for Rob. I'll also be in Smithfield next Thursday on business if you want to grab some then - PM me off-list.