Glassed Over Keel Bolt Heads in Bilge

[triton318]

I have Triton #318 and it has external ballast. When I first looked at the boat, I thought it had internal ballast because I did not see any keel bolt heads/nuts in the bilge. Later, I realized that the little "mounds" in the bilge were the keel bolt heads/nuts and that they had been glassed over. I'm not sure if they have fiberglass cloth/mat and resin over them or if it's just resin.

In any case, the keel bolts/nuts are inaccessible and hidden. I've begun to worry if this could cause a problem. Does anyone know if the boats came this way from the factory? If not, what possible problems could this pose? Is there anything I should be looking for when I haul the boat out to paint the bottom?

Thanks for any help/suggestions/thoughts you can provide.

Jay
Dove, Triton #318
Hayes, VA

[keelbolts]

Do a search for keelbolts and you'll get a lot of info quickly. I remember being involved in some of those threads. I had some questions myself. You'll want to see what Tim and several other knowledgeable guys had to say. I've been all over the internet and, especially if you have a Triton, there is nothing remotely like this forum. There's darned near no problem you can imagine that someone in this forum hasn't come up against, corrected, and photographed for your edification.

[Chris Campbell]

I don't have a Triton, so I don't have specific knowledge - but my LeComte NE38 has the same thing, glassed over keel bolts, in my case they're at the bottom of the water tank. The LeComte's were variously built with stainless or bronze keel bolts, and all of them (as far as I can tell) were glassed in. I've heard of one person who cut through the glass to check on them, and found they were fine - and I've never heard of anyone have them fail (the oldest boat I know of built by LeComte this was was built in '62).

So I'm not worried about mine. And while that doesn't really answer your question, it is at least one vote of reassurance from another old boat owner with the same issue!

Oh - one bit I forgot to mention is that stainless steel is subject to corrosion when it's not in the open air, so stainless bolts glassed over would be more of a worry than bronze. That said, I don't know which one my boat has, yet I remain strangely worry-free (at least now, I did worry for a while).

I'll be interested to hear what others have to say about this...

Cheers,

Chris

[Tim]

The Triton keelbolts on the models with external ballast (like yours) are made from Everdur, an outstanding silicone bronze alloy--strong and long-lasting.

There are no documented or anecdotal accounts of anything approaching failure of these bolts on a Triton. Put the issue from your mind, unless someday you notice some external indication of something going wrong.

[Quetzalsailor]

Of course, our NE 38 has 'em, too. Check out Chris' Lecomteowners site and you'll find some more chatter. Interestingly, Cruising World's Melanie(?) Neale recently wrote about her loose keelbolts worry and that make of boat's repair. They add a bandage across the joint and replace it now and again!

Lots of older boats have internal, glassed in ballast. It occured to me that Chris and I, and anybody with a relatively simply shaped external ballast, could add a layup which would encapsulate the lead, lap up onto the rest of the boat, and be hefty enough so that the keelbolts would be nothing more than ballast. Boats whose ballast has a gentle transition to the adjoining hull would have an easier time with that idea than a boat whose ballast is effectively a sharp added shape. Indeed, our NE 38s and other oldies have a ballast that's faired into the remainder of the keel. rather like ballast bolted onto the bottom of a wood boat's deadwood. Makes this idea pretty easy and attractive to me.

Chris is right: encapsulated stainless, with a smidge of water, is susceptable to crevice corrosion. Encapsulated in polyester is not dry!

Encapsulated chainplates are another dandy worry! We've got them, too.