Owl Moon Gets Torqued

Today was the day we would check out Owl Moon's keel/hull joint issue further and check on the tightness of the keel bolt nuts.  Use of the travel lift to lift the boat and let the keel hang was scheduled for about 2 pm.  In preparation for lifting the boat, I drew parallel lines along the joint, one on the keel and one on the hull section so that we could tell where the joint was opening and by how much.  Mike, from the Boatyard, showed up before noon to prep in the salon.  He put down a protective mat and then detached the table so that we could move it out of the way and get better access to the keel bolt nuts.  I had already dried the bilge completely.  Once access to the bilge was clear, I sprayed some PB Blaster on the bolts/nuts.

3 keel bolts in the aft section of the bilge (the aft most one out of sight to the left)

8 Keel bolts in the middle section

8 keel bolts in the forward section

One (or more) keel bolts were inaccessible under the mast step.

By 2 pm, it was apparent that the travel lift would be busy for a while and I busied myself with other small tasks.  Finally, a little after 4 pm, the travel lift approached Owl Moon and we were ready to begin.

Keel hanging from the boat with a small gap in the very aft part of the keel/hull joint.

Can barely get a thin ruler into the opening in the joint.

Mike applying 3M 5200 in the small gap between keel and hull.

Weight of the boat is back on the keel with the excess 5200 cleaned off.

Now it was time to go inside and see if the keel bolt nuts could be tightened.

Special deep sockets from Tartan made by welding two deep sockets together.

Tightening one of the medium bolts.

Mike found that a number of the nuts were not as tight as the specs and all were successfully tightened to meet the torque specs.  Before tightening, Mike always backed off the nut first to see how it moved.  There are 3 different sized keel bolts (and maybe a bigger one under the mast step).  The torque specs are:

1/2" bolt - 3/4" nut - 45 ft. lbs. (mostly used for alignment and not a high torque spec)

3/4" bolt - 1-1/8" nut - 140

1" bolt - 1-1/2" nut - 300

1-1/4" bolt - 1-7/8" nut - 500

It was a relief to find the keel/hull joint in a solid state and torquing the nuts should be all that was needed.  Now we can proceed with the adventure of bringing Owl Moon home.