Exposed fiberglass below waterline

[capt jgw]

Can be done in water but... If one of more of the bolts is badly corroded down below the surface (that's where crevice corrosion happens) you'll want to be on the hard. I had to drop and rebed the keel on my old Columbia because one of the bolts broke off when I tried to tighten it. Very low probably of that happening though without other symptoms.
One thing to check when you do haul: look for a gap between the hull and keel, especially at the forward end. It's common enough in Catalinas that they call it the "Catalina Smile", but my Columbia had it too. If water seeps out of the smile that's a little bit bad. If RUSTY water seeps out, that can be really bad. There's nothing in there that can rust but the keel bolts and rust means they're degrading.

[Glenn.Brooks]

Water in the bilge is likely no big deal. Actually wet bilges are universal, with no real alarm bells ever going off about keel bolts. However, all SS can be subject to anaerobic corrosion and failure - sometimes very rapid corrosion. If you are worried about the keel bolts, pull one or two during your next haul out and inspect them. 30 - 40 year old bolts are always a candidate for replacement, and (usually unfounded) worry. My old wood boats always ended up with or two keel bolts replaced at some point point, back in the day… BTW is rare that all the keel bolts go bad- usually just one or two on the ends, where they take the most beating and allow water ingress.

[Apollo19.5]

Mine just got hauled and had some underwater repair work done. Long all lead keel with rub damage on the bottom of it. No issues. Fill, fair, paint over with antifoul, get on with life.

[capt jgw]

Yep, I've had to beat out and fill dents on the bottom front of mine a couple times. A big advantage of bolt on lead over encapsulated. The same impact on an encapsulated keel could be a total loss, too expensive to repair.