How Rusty is Too Rusty? Keel pin questions.

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ChrisC
Posts: 47
Joined: Sun Aug 24, 2014 2:46 pm
Location: Quincy, CA

How Rusty is Too Rusty? Keel pin questions.

Post by ChrisC »

I have some keel bolt/pin concerns, though this seems to be mainly an interior issue.

My boat is on its trailer, but from below I can see the keel pin and it looks to be in good shape. No corrosion, no rust. I can't tell the material from which it's made. On the port side I can see a shiny metal; however, the keel sits more to this side and I have maybe an 1/8 inch of space that I can see. I'm wondering if this is a sleeve inside the hole that the pin passes through? And maybe the sleeve is pushed just a bit to port? On the starboard side, where I have good visibility, I cannot see a sleeve here, it just looks like the pin passes through a hole in the keel.

Here is the rust concern, on the area inside the boat, looking through the access area:

Image

What's the story here and how much of a concern is it? Remember, the keel pin looks good from below. My real question is that I want to get my boat in for the rest of July, August, September, and part of October. Do I need to worry?

The same structure on the port side does not look bad:

Image

I suspect the excessive rust on the starboard side bolt structure is from water that was trapped in the hull. More on that in another post.

Thanks for any thoughts and help. I know I will have to address this probably for next season, but I can plan that.
"There is nothing--absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." --Wind in the Willows
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