Association Forum - Need advice on replacing swing keel bolts and pin

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Catalina 25 Specific Forum

Need advice on replacing swing keel bolts and pin

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

djn
Master Marine Consultant

Member Avatar

USA
1561 Posts

Initially Posted - 01/17/2006 : 13:02:16

Hi All, Just talked to the marina where my boat is stored and they are going to lift my boat up on the Friday night before the Monday morning it will go in the water. They are doing this so I can replace the pin and bolts. The question I have is; Is there anything else I should be replacing or looking at when I am down there? Is that little ball come out from down there or from the inside? Cheers.

Dennis
No Boat
S.E. Michigan

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 01/17/2006 : 13:45:20

You replace the ball from the inside but you shove the cable up from underneath and you must connect it to the keel so you need to be out of the water. I cannot imagine replacing the ball and not the cable. Does your yard understand what you want to do? Have they done it before? Do they have the dolly with supports to hold the keel when they lift the boat off of it? You do not want this thing to fall over. Also, iron sucks in water, your keel is iron. If I had one out I would look very hard at what I could do to stop the rust cycle. Encapsulating is the primo deal. Good luck, check my site for more photos.

Edited by - on

djn
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1561 Posts

Response Posted - 01/17/2006 : 15:41:26

Hi Frank, here is what me and the yard guy discussed. On Friday night I would remove the bolts from the pivot pin mount and make a stabilizing jig for the keel. He would lift the boat up about six to ten inches and we would jackscrew the craddle arms up to hold the boat. Over the weekend I would do all the work I had to: replace the cable, pivot pin, and ball. and Monday moring, he would lower the boat back down on the keel and I would put the new bolts in. Then he would lift it back up and put it in the water. Doing it this way will eliminate an extra lifting charge. Does this sound resonable or like a disaster waiting to happen? Cheers.

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 01/17/2006 : 16:38:45

Dennis,

Why do you need to lift your boat to service the keel?

Looking at pictures of your boat, it appears that you have the room needed to drop the keel down by just removing the timber and blocking beneath the keel...or will this not give you the room needed to look at the pin?

Edited by - dlucier on 01/17/2006 16:40:07

steephen
Navigator

Members Avatar

100 Posts

Response Posted - 01/17/2006 : 17:30:01

DJN:
I replaced my pin and bushing blocks two years ago. I blocked up the boat; lowered the keel on a house jack; bored out existing hole (one inch) to 1.25 inches (made a jig for this); hammered in a new stainless sleeve from Catalina Direct; put in new pin (still one inch) and raised the keel back home. I did this in one afternoon with my brother, for a few hundred bucks. Let me know if you need/want more details. I can even let you have the 1.25" bit cheap; it only has one hole worth of wear.
Steohen Z on #1667, "Little Wing"

Edited by - on

djn
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1561 Posts

Response Posted - 01/17/2006 : 18:01:27

Hi Don, I assume that there is a weight on the keel as it sits. This is not the right craddle for the boat, just one they had laying around. So I am not sure what will happen if I put all the weight on the four corners. If I could do that, it would give me enough room. I will look into that.

Hi Stephon, Is that normal proceedure to bore the hole out and put in a sleeve? I thought I just had to put in a new pin. Let me know and I will buy your bit. Cheers

Edited by - on

Brooke Willson
Admiral

Members Avatar

USA
983 Posts

Response Posted - 01/18/2006 : 09:02:23

Last year when I had my keel faired, encapsulated, painted, and the hardware replaced, the yard decided the easiest way for them to separate the keel from the boat was to build a frame to hold the keel, and then use the jack stand screws to raise the boat off the keel. It worked like a charm.

Brooke

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 01/18/2006 : 10:52:29

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by djn
 Hi Don, I assume that there is a weight on the keel as it sits. This is not the right cradle for the boat, just one they had laying around. So I am not sure what will happen if I put all the weight on the four corners. If I could do that, it would give me enough room. I will look into that.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Dennis,

For the past 2 years (and probably much longer than that), a 79' C25 swinger stored near my boat has been sitting in a 4 post cradle without anything supporting the keel with no apparent problems to the hull. If you do decide to attempt to drop the keel as it sits, you could add additional blocking for the piece of mind.

With your original plan to have the marina lift your boat the Friday before the Monday of your launch date, this may not give you the time to perform the maintenance actions, especially if something else crops up (Murphy's Law) like a worn keel pin hole, a broken hinge bolt, corroded cable attachment...etc. Besides, you don't want to be racing the clock while performing critical maintenance issues.

Edited by - on

tinob
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1883 Posts

Response Posted - 01/18/2006 : 11:55:20

When last I replaced the pivot pin, oh maybe 10 yrs ago, I used 4 pieces of threaded rod about a foot long with washer and nuts. I removed the existing bolts one at a time replacing as I went with of threaded rod. Lowering the keel is straight forward with an assist from a screw jack. I'd unscrew the rods a half inch at a time then lower the jack til the rods were in contact with the jack and repeat the process until the pin was in view. You want at this time to shore up the keel lest it flop- over when the pin is removed. The advantage in this technique is that there is no fishing around for the thread alignment when you replace, one at a time, the rods for the bolts.

Edited by - on

steephen
Navigator

Members Avatar

100 Posts

Response Posted - 01/19/2006 : 20:42:33

Don:

I don't know what's considered normal. My pin was 25 years old and bent about a quarter inch out of straight. The hole was "wobbled" out about an eighth. Thus there was no replacing just the pin. The Catalina bushing blocks come with the one inch hole, so there's no sunstituting a fatter pin. I made a perfectly perpindicular over-bore, and can't remember where I got the sleeve, but it all went perfectly. I took it apart last year and it looked great.
You don't need the threaded rod mentioned above (although I'm sure it works well. You do need to have the keel hauled all the way up on the cable, and parallel to the waterline. That way, the part in the slot stabilizes the thing while you lower the business end.
I can send you details about how I made the boring jig for the bit, etc if you plan to try it. I have to write the whole thing up and post it, because it's a great system. My yard wantse about nine hundred to do the job.

Stephen Z.

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.