| Author | Message | ||
     Gary Hendrickson (Garyh) Rating: N/A |
Submitted by Gary Hendrickson (#094), Class Rules Committee 7 or 8 stainless steel threaded rods are molded 12” - 15” down into the top of the keel, and they extend 3 inches above the top of the keel. Their diameters are all 3/4 inch for earliest keels, and 3/4 and 1 inch for later keels. The keel fastener layout for later hulls built after June 1983 is as follows. There are 7 keel fasteners. Moving forward from the aft end, you see a 3/4 inch stud, then another one, then two of them side by side. Next, down in the first square opening in the mast step "floor" area is a one inch stud, in the middle square opening is a second one inch stud, and finally a 3/4 inch one in the forward-most small square opening. The nuts and washers that S2 used for many boats are ferric, or mild steel, however. These are the parts that are rusting, not the stainless studs. The reasoning for not using stainless steel for the nuts was apparently that dis-similar metals would have less tendency to loosen up over time, we are told. Should anyone replace the keel washers & nuts with stainless steel ones, surveyors strongly recommend applying Loctite # 270 thread compound to the threads. The tightness of keel nuts should be checked every few years, and after an accidental grounding. The recommended torque to use is about 400 foot-pounds. The socket sizes for the nuts are 1 1/8 inch and 1 1/2 inch, deep throat. |
