Keel Stud/nut Maintenance

[agoss60]

Hi, have just hauled out and need to find out what is best to coat cast iron keel with to seal it before coating with antifoul. Also was going to replace keel nuts which are looking a little sad but not sure what torque setting i need to do nuts up to as im sure this is very important to get right...Obviously. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[C350ia]

I just checked the torque on my C-350 keel bolt nuts as Windstar is in the yard being refitted after a lightning strike.
The torque setting, according to Catalina, is 100 foot-pounds.
The nuts are sized 1 1/2 inches and take an extra deep socket.
At first I was going to have a machine shop weld a piece of pipe between two regular sockets, but then found that Snap-On tools has extra deep sockets of the required size for sale online. I bought one and had no problems.
My boat is a 2005 and basically the torque was OK, only two nuts budged the tiniest bit.

Best,
David Hipschman
S/V Windstar
Fort Myers, FL

[wolfe10]

Sometimes the "devil is in the details":

Is that 100 ft-lbs of torque for the keel bolts with keel suspended (in air or boat in the water) or with the keel supported (i.e. on blocks)? May make no difference, but worth asking.

Not aware of any iron keels on Catalinas (at least on "cruising size Catalinas). All I have seen are lead? What am I missing?

Brett
2004 350

[agoss60]

Thanks David for your info it is greatly appreciated. As for what the keel is made of i made the mistake of assuming it was cast iron as most production boats seem to be cast these days. I gather there would be no difference in material between wing keel and fin keel although i did notice wing keel specs show wing keel is a lot heavier than my fin keel. Anyway thanks again for info.