Pre-launch Items

[Jim Picerno]

My new boat is on the hard in CT, and I’ve just booked a launch date for the first week in May. Consequently, I’m thinking about some pre-launch items.

• My current plan for the boat is to leave it in CT for the summer, then sail it home to FL late in the fall. The current anti-foul paint is Micron CSC. I’d like a paint that’s suitable for the Northeast, as well as Florida, and if possible last two years. Easiest path would be to stay with Micron CSC. Or should I consider another ablative with more anti-foul properties? Pettit Odyssey Triton looks interesting and is compatible for painting over Micron CSC.
• I’ve got some 6” – 8” cracks between the keel stub and the keel (see below). If there’s no weeping I’m inclined to applying fairing compound, sand and paint. Though maybe a better plan would be to widen the cracks with a Dremel, fill with 5200 or G-flex, then apply fairing compound over the top.
• My previous boat had an encapsulated keel, so keel bolts are new to me. According to my user manual, my boat has four 1” bolts, and eight ¾” bolts. I’ve tried to go through all the threads on this topic, and I’ve found one or two references stating that the 1” bolts should be torqued to 175 – 200 ft lbs. Of course, all the torque tables I’ve found online have a much higher torque rating for a 1” inch bolt. I could find no references to the torque settings for the ¾” bolts. It seems like a better idea to tighten these bolts while the boat is on the hard but maybe I shouldn’t mess with them at all. As the redoubtable Mr. Williams has said, he’s never heard of an Ericson losing a keel.

All thoughts/comments are appreciated.

 

[peaman]

My boat is in Mystic, CT area. Two years ago, I applied Interlux "Fiberglass Bottomkote NT". Last Spring, the bottom looked so good that I used the same paint only for several inches down from the waterline, on leading edge of keel and rudder, and on flaked areas and scars. Right now, the bottom looks good with only a powerwash at haul out last Fall. I plan to do pretty much the same as last year: waterline, leading edges, and flaked areas.

For the cracks at the keel stub, I dug out all material in poor condition to get to a solid surface, and then I filled and smoothed with G-Flex. I did that three years ago and the crack has not reappeared.

 

[bigd14]

I would want to tighten the keel bolts while on the hard just to be sure. A good time to check the keel bolt washers too. On my boat the washers had degraded significantly while the bolts and nuts were fine. I believe this may have lead to a loss of tension and some movement in the keel joint. I did the same fix as peaman but with a layer of fiberglass cloth over the entire seam. No cracks after 8+ years.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

We did a full strip of the bottom last year and repainted. A photo and notes on the keel gap are in this post:
- https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/hull-blisters-treatment-of-master-thread.20169/post-173467

For the gap I dug back in as best I could, then squirted in flexible epoxy (Total Boat Thixo), followed by TB fairing compound, TB epoxy barrier coat, and bottom paint. When I spoke to the tech rep at Total Boat about the project he said the fairing compound was somewhat flexible and a lot of people use just that. But I went by the adage, "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.". Which almost always means more work and sometimes gets me in trouble.

We put on Micron CSC and were very pleased with the performance. We're putting it on again this year.

 

[Kenneth K]

I’ve tried to go through all the threads on this topic, and I’ve found one or two references stating that the 1” bolts should be torqued to 175 – 200 ft lbs. Of course, all the torque tables I’ve found online have a much higher torque rating for a 1” inch bolt. I could find no references to the torque settings for the ¾” bolts.

I was so frustrated trying to track down proper torque settings that I wrote a blog about it:

E32-3 - Keel Bolt Torque - Axial Loading

One thing I had on the list for my next haul-out was checking the keel bolt torque. I’ve never had issues over an excessive keel seam, nor water seeping in or out of the seam. I just figured that after three haul-outs (the last one unplanned and...

ericsonyachts.org

It seems like a better idea to tighten these bolts while the boat is on the hard but maybe I shouldn’t mess with them at all.

If you know in advance that the keel bolts are tight and that the keel is in the proper position, there’s probably no harm snugging them up while boat is floating. But most of us don’t know this when we get a new boat. So it’s always safer to tighten them up with the boat on the hard, where the keel is forced up into its proper position against the keel stub, regardless of what the bolts are doing.