Keel Bolt Inspection

Since Tarka is now over twenty years old I decided to do an inspection of the keel bolts after seeing some horror stories that some boatyards have unleashed into the public domain. One or two bolts did look a bit discoloured or rather the timber abound the bolts. After speaking to David Moss he didn’t sound overly concerned but he kindly explained how to remove one. He said they are made out of aluminium bronze and should be ok for 50 years or more. The discoloration may be a reaction to the copper element in the metal but the timber is still sound.

I removed and replaced two bolts as he described and here’s the story of one of them in pictures. The other was pretty much the same. I purchased a plate of the same metal to make some heavy washers. I used cotton caulk to create some wadding to pack around the holes top and bottom.