[C320-list] Crack Between Hull and Keel

[Timothy Woods]

Dave,

If your keel bolts were tightened down to 100 Lbs it would be impossible
for your keel to drop 1/4".

I was an Iron worker when I was younger and we would move 10 ton steel
beams with the force from a 1" bolt.

Below is a basic force chart.



On Apr 30, 2017 4:12 PM, "Art Harden" <artstree at aol.com> wrote:

I thought I would weigh in on the 320 Catalina smile. In past emails I
inquired as to the torque values for the keel bolts. Based on all emails
back-and-forth I think it was resolved to be somewhere between 100 and 235
foot-pounds. Using my mechanics mind and a history of torquing a lot of
bolts, I decided to split the difference.

Today I finally managed to bring my sockets and torque wrench to the boat
and check Tortuga. There are two sizes of bolts on the keel and I torqued
them a different values. When I checked the large bolts I was surprised to
find that some of them were as low as 70-80 foot pounds. Using my mechanics
intuition, I torqued them to 175 foot pounds. When I hit the 100 pound
mark, the nut still seem to lose to my way of thinking. So I kept going to
the 175 which felt right based on the size of the bolt.

The smaller bolt at the back of the keel was only 40 foot pounds. I torqued
it to 80 and that felt right.

My biggest surprise was how much I was able to actually torque each large
nut.  I think only one nut was snug such that it did not move when the 175
foot-pounds was applied.

I'm not sure if this helps anyone else but it will make me feel better
knowing everything is snug. We will find out tomorrow is Tortuga goes in
the water in the morning.

Art Harden
Tortuga Catalina 320
937-477-5544 (m)