All Set to Drop the Keel

June 28, 2016  I drove down to Regent Point Tuesday afternoon so that I could be present when the dropped the keel first thing Wednesday morning.

The keel is braced, ready for lift off.  Calk at the edge has been removed and debond has been sprayed into the crack.

They have also removed all the nuts and washers from the keel bolts.  Before removing, they checked the tension and all the small nuts were way below the spec.  On many of them, the washers had settled into the floor of the bilge.  The torque on the medium nuts were also consistently off a bit.

Some other work has been done since I was last at Regent Point...

They removed the spreaders from the mast and saw that they were held in place with anodized aluminum bar that protects the aluminum spreaders from contacting the carbon fiber.

Anodized aluminum bar to anchor the spreader.

They also removed the paint from one of the rough spots on a spreader and were able to determine that the uneven surface was caused by failed paint and not any galvanic corrosion.  Regent Point will sand and paint the spreaders while they have the mast off the boat.

All the U bolts for the mainsheet blocks have been removed from the boom.  They did that by tying a string to the U bolt, removing the bolts that hold the backing plate in place and letting them drop down into the boom.

Bottom of the mast where one of the cover plates had been.

The three U bolts on the plate that had been inside the boom.

U bolts are welded to the plate that is inside the boom

Paul says he can reuse the plates and install larger diameter U bolts.