Ericson 381 keel bolts

[jon newman]

Am I correct that the keel bolts on the 38 are one inch UNC stainless steel studs? I can not find the correct answer this moment. Also has anyone out there replaced the nuts and lock washers?
Regards: Jon Newman

 

[Andy Rogers]

Hi Jon,

What year is your 381? I just had all the nuts and bolts replaced in my 1984 E38 which include twelve 1" bolts and one 3/4" bolt at the trailing end of the keel.

Let me know if you need any more info. Much to my dismay, I've become a keel bolt expert this past year!

Andy

 

[jon newman]

Thanks for the reply, my Ericson is a 1984 model, I have replaced 7 out of the twelve, there was nothing wrong with them other than cosmetic rust, I found the one inch studs to be in good shape.
The only problem I have now is getting the 1 1/2" deep well socket on to the ones under the mast step plate! I would like to re torque them if I could get to them.
I have rebuilt the mast, as you might have read eariler this year, as well as all the other rigging, replaced all the wire, fittings , control lines, hardware etc. etc. I have just purchased two Barient 23 self tailing winches for the spinnaker, and ball bearing geona cars. I will relocate the 28,s forward and put the 23,s aft. I plane to mount them to a 6061T 3/8 aluminum plate, that will match the coming lines, I will machine the plate to allow stainless steel helicoils for mounting the winches, and o-ring the connection points for mounting the plate to the coming.
Ericson was to liberal when they drilled the through holes for the chain plates and hardware, to much bedding compound was used to fill in the gaps. I plan to replace the chain plate deck connection with custom machined stainless plates that are o-ringed instead of re bedding like I did at the first of the year.

 

[enrique]

Keel Bolts

How does one remove the Keel bolts?
in Particular the trailing one aftmost on the E-38 1981?

Are they threaded at both ends or is is some " L" type bolt?

 

[Andy Rogers]

Keel bolts in 80's era Ericsons we're J-casted into the lead keel. This means they took 1" threaded rod (or 3/4" in the case of the trailing bolt) bent it into a J shape, and then the bolts where cast into the molten lead.

Removal of the bolts requires taking the keel off and melting out the bolts individually, bending new rod to shape, laying the J-bolt back in, and recasting. This is a huge amount of dangerous work and is best left to experts. Improper removal of the bolts can warp the shape of the keel and it would become difficult to impossible to get the bolts to line up to the hull again.

Andy

 

[footrope]

How often should keelbolts be inspected?

I suppose everyone who has ever bought a boat has a "wish I'd thought of that on the survey" story. I guess one of mine is keelbolts. Not to panic yet. I'll ask the PO if he had them inspected when he had the rigging replaced in '98.

Seems like there ought to be some interval associated with this inspection. Is checking one or two generally enough or should they all be checked?

I have a 1980 E38 Mark 1 that was extensively refit by the PO between 1995 and 98, including cleaning and repainting the rig, new standing rigging, and an epoxy bottom.

Thanks,

Craig

 

[enrique]

Inspection Frequency

I check at each haulout.

 

[Loren Beach]

I had the keel dropped for inspection a couple years ago. I was lucky. Even though I had one seeping bolt, none of them suffered from any crevice corrosion -- they had only some mild surface rust color on the threads. Turned out that Ericson had not completely cleaned all the mold-release wax off the bottom of the boat and the sealant they put into the joint wasn't doing a good job.
Now it is re-bedded with 5200, and we joke that the bolts are no longer needed...


Nice dry bilge. New washers and nuts. Life is good.

Since the boat was already out for new through-hulls, I had this done and also the rudder dropped to check the shaft -- it was fine, too.

Nice to know this, on a boat built way back in the summer of '88. The yard even gave me a letter certifying what they did and saw, in case some insurance company wants proof that the boat is worth the exorbitant amount I tell them it is.


My experiences, FWIW,
Loren in Portland, OR
Olson 34 #8

 

[enrique]

Aftmost Keelbolt

I delivered my Boat from Ventura to Alameda, in front of Avila Beach in Very rough Seas we were pounding and the aftmost keelbolt sprang a leak.

It was hand tight.

Seeing 4 inches of sea water on the cabin sole at 2:00 Am can get ones attention.

The Crew was asleep and had not properly stowed the food after dinner and the Bilge pump refused to Pump Cookie mush.

After rapid wakeup call and all hands to hand pumping I iinspected all known through hulls and other openings finding no leaks I was clearing the bilge pump this worked and we pumped dry then I opende the little aft Bilge cover and took out the dustpan to see a pencil thin stream of Water.

Fixed wiith a piece of rubber and a wrench.

Fixed permantly last haul out.

 

[u079721]

My experience was the same as Loren's. Our bilge leaked, and the aft edge of our 1989 E-38 was even separated from the hull. We also had blisters.

So when the yard was fixing the blisters we had them drop the keel, and as with Loren's boat, found that the mold release had never been removed. (We even had a paper label with the boat's hull number stuck on the top of the keel, still readable.) No wonder the caulk hadn't held!

My yard rebedded the keel with thickened epoxy, so it ain't never coming off again. And when it doesn't rain the bilge is bone dry, so at least we got that right.

 

[Geoff Johnson]

"Since the boat was already out for new through-hulls, I had this done and also the rudder dropped to check the shaft -- it was fine, too."

Loren, paranoia caused me to do you one better. After attending a winter talk by Ralph Naranjo where he recounted his Ericson 39 rudder breaking free of the internal welds (he commented "Ericsons are forever, their rudders aren't"), I had my rudder cored to check the welds (due to rust weeping from around the shaft). Everything checked out okay.