Tightening Keel Bolts on a Sailboat
17 December 2023 · 15 min · 7K views
What this video covers
Cory discovers two forward keel bolts on the new boat moved at just 90 pounds of torque — far below the 350 ft-lb dry spec for the 1-inch steel bolts.0:55 His torque wrench maxes out at 150 ft-lb, so he extends it with a pry bar to reach roughly 220 ft-lb on the accessible bolts, accepting that full spec torque is unachievable in the confined bilge.14:03 Accessing four of the six bolts requires removing a battery bank, a manual bilge pump, and a wood compartment sealed with 3M 5200 — a two-hour extraction job.5:01 The deepest bolt sits nearly three feet down, requiring a broomstick-and-rag tool just to clean the nut.12:04 Cory uses intact epoxy around the nut base as a field indicator of original torque: two rear bolts and one mid-ship bolt still show unbroken epoxy and don't move at 100 ft-lb, so he leaves them alone.11:01 He also researches wet versus dry torque specs and notes that lubricant type — oil, WD-40, or anti-seize — requires different correction factors, but finds only a single 350 ft-lb dry figure online.9:25 Epoxy residue around keel bolt nuts is a practical proxy for whether a bolt has been disturbed since original installation.10:41
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