Leaky Keel Bolt

[dps280washington]

I recently purchased a 1988 Oceanis 350. One of the keel bolts is leaky and there is a hairline crack at the aft of the keel when I had it hauled out for the survey. I know that I need to drop the keel and replace the keel bolts. My question is can I wait until next year to take care of this. The previous owner had the boat hauled out 6 months ago and did not correct the issue but had the bottom repainted so I’m not due for that for a while. There are a bunch of other things that I want to take care of when I have the boat hauled out that I’m not ready to do (new seacocks, dripless shaft seal, etc) and i don’t want to haul out to fix the boat and then next year haul out again when I’m ready to do the other work. The other keel bolts look relatively good and there is no water intrusion from any of the other bolts. The leaky keel bolt is the one aft of the bilge pump next to the galley.

[neilpride]

If that bolt goes , you know what will happen.
If you're going to be tied to a dock, wait until next year, if you're going to sail offshore you are playing Russian roulette.

[Jim Cate]

^^^^
Actually, no, I don't know what would happen with the failure of one keel bolt. My first thought is... nothing would happen. If they have calculated things so closely that one out of many is enough to cause failure of the keel, well, Bene is worse than I even imagined!

But I thought that those were simple cap screws holding the keel up, and that one could replace them, one at a time, while afloat. Not so??

Jim

[RaymondR]

Looks like it's in a low spot where water collects and it may have corroded because of being continuously wet.

There appears to be sealant under the washer and if water has been prevented from penetrating under the head the bolt may be still perfectly sound except for the corrosion on the head.

I the rest of the bolts appear to be sound I'd put a socket on it and see if it could be removed and replaced.

[neilpride]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

^^^^
Actually, no, I don't know what would happen with the failure of one keel bolt. My first thought is... nothing would happen. If they have calculated things so closely that one out of many is enough to cause failure of the keel, well, Bene is worse than I even imagined!

But I thought that those were simple cap screws holding the keel up, and that one could replace them, one at a time, while afloat. Not so??

Jim

If that bolt breaks, the water ingress can be phenomenal, the keel starts to work loose at the aft end cracking all those nice reinforcements glued to the hull and you can end up like , you remember Cheeki Rafiki?

[Fore and Aft]

DepSmith5802 I don't think replacing the keel bolt is going to fix the issue. Obviously, the keel hull join is leaking and then working its way up the keel bolt. Where it's leaking is anyone's guess. Water is so viscous and travels in some crazy directions sometimes.
Cheers

[marcjsmith]

hopefully you negotiated a discount on the purchase price to cover the fault.

it looks like you have two bolts close to one another. Swapping out keel bolts at dock in the water is done often with no ill effects.
if one of the bolts is leaking. nothing says that you couldn't remove the offending bolt clean up the area, smooth the surface, maybe even chamfer the hole a small amount, and reinstall the bolt. using some some sealant around the bolt/washer to keep the water out. follow torquing guidelines

according to this article, bene does say that it can be done in the water.. changing bolts.
https://www.boats.com/how-to/how-to-replace-keel-bolts/

Don Coxe, the buyer, completed the replacement project himself last winter using a document available from Beneteau USA. New galvanized bolts purchased from Beneteau were threaded into the iron keel from the top. (Lead keels use stainless steel studs cast into the lead.) The challenge is to wind the old bolts out, but for the truly confident, Beneteau says that this can even be done one bolt at a time while the boat is in the water.

what is seeping now could be come more than just a seep when you remove the bolt. if you remove the bolt and its a gusher...then put the bolt back in and schedule you haul out. If it is still just weeping maybe you can stop the weep.

Remember though you are not fixing the problem of a leaking/failed keel joint. You are just mitigating a nuisance. The way to fix, is to haul the boat.

[capt jgw]

The bolts can be replaced in the water, one at a time. But... If the bolt is badly corroded below the surface it could break off instead of unscrewing. If that happens you're pretty much screwed. They don't fail at the head or in the metal keel, they break in the fiberglass part of the joint. I had this happen on my old Columbia, one of the bolts just crumbled and the top couple inches pulled out leaving the rest still screwed into the metal. Took very little force on the wrench to do that. Fortunately the boat was out of the water at the time, we're in Michigan and have to haul every fall so we take care of these things then.
If it were me I would try to remove the bolt as is, but be prepared for an immediate haul out of it goes badly. In a marina with a Travelift, during working hours and hopefully not too busy. Tell them you're sinking and they'll pull you right out. And have a wood plug handy to drive into the hole. I did this once when a plastic through hull broke, I called them telling what happened and they had the lift straps in the water waiting when I arrived.

If the bolt comes out ok I'd squirt some sealant (not 5200) into the hole and put in a new bolt. That's a only temporary fix to hold until you do haul out. The bedding between hull and keel needs to be replaced to really fix it.

[tkeithlu]

DepSmith5802 that photograph of the keel/hull joint and the leak make me suspicious that the source of the problem may be an impact on the keel. When a keel hits a rock while the boat is moving forward the keel tends to pivot, with the leading edge going down and the trailing edge up. The consequence, depending on the magnitude of the impact, may be damage to the fiberglass of the hull just in front and just behind the ends of the keel. That in turn may result in the keel working against the hull rather than being a rigid part of it - sort of like that gap between your keel and hull and the goo someone put under the head of the leaking bolt.

I hope that none of this applies to your situation, but I do think that a careful inspection - looking for cracks near the front and back of the keel inside the hull, and whether your keel is loose, and why that bolt is loose enough to leak water - is in order.

Best wishes on it.