Keel repair on the Catalina 30 

Very encouraging. I think the best is yet to come when you find the right things to bring in your boat like a CB radio and a 12 volt chest freezer or two. Keep it in ECO mode.

Thank you so much! I just discovered I have water in my keel and your video showed me that maybe all is not over.

I appreciate that you are posting these videos. This is sailing for the rest of us.

Total boat should definitely be giving you money. You sold me.

I dragged my Catalina 22 from Idaho to Ohio to take my brother sailing on Lake Erie this past summer. He had such a good time that he decided to buy a Catalina 30 the following week. Unfortunately, it has the smile. He can't do the work himself so I'll be making 5he trip again in April to where his boat is in Michigan to do the repair for him before we splash and bring the boat from ehere he bought it on Lake Huron to his home port on Lake Erie. This video has been tremendously helpful and will guide me in my work. Thanks so much for posting this and inspiring me with the confidence to take this on.

Hey man, seasoned sailer here and I appreciate watching your videos. Appreciate your conversation kind of style. Take it easy brotha

Thanks for sharing. I have a Sabre 28-2 with similar issue and will be doing a version of what you did in the spring. I’ll be going in a slightly different direction with materials, tho. I believe the keels on some boats work a bit no matter how well the bolt torque is watched, so I’m going with a more flexible sealing goo for the joint. Maybe 4000 or g flex. But prob not 5200. Sabre forum people are split on the best approach. Seems like Catalina people are, too. For fairing, I’ll be using old school polyester boat putty. It’ll tolerate a little flex. No need for strength or hardness in the fairing. It’s purely cosmetic and to help water flow. Flexibility is number one for me. Finally, keel bolt torquing. My bolts are 3/4” by 10 tpi. Pretty std. Sabre says 90 ftlbs. J-Boats says 94. J-Boats is adamant that the bolts be well lubed. Makes sense as the std dry torque for a 3/4-10 SS bolt is closer to 130. Did you use lube and what value did you torque to? Bolt size? Does Catalina stipulate using lube? Either way, it’s important to remember that lubing reduces torque values by about 1/3. Good luck with your sailboat journey. Fwiw, I sailed out of Manhasset bay for many years. Now out in eastern CT.

So I watched this video a few months back followed your instructions and BAM Catalina smile corrected! Thank you so much for these videos. We are not Patrons for anyone. You will be our first! If you guys ever find yourselves in Sarasota FL dinner is on us!

This is the best Keel repair video on RU-vid ESP for a Catalina 30

Nice job. Catalina was high on our list when we were looking at monohulls, but we hadn’t heard of the Catalina smile. We have some projects coming up using Totalboat products. We can’t wait to get rolling

This was an amazing video Thnak you

Great video brian 👍 I think this is perfect

Now I want to buy a boat and go sailing, after the repairs I probably will need to make! You inspire me

Amazing job 👍👍

Great info! Thanks!

Thank you for this video man!

Great video thank you

5200 makes sense. The keel will flex and fiberglass fairing will undoubtedly crack. At least the 5200 won’t crack and break the seal keeping water out. 👍

I lived aboard and loved my C 30... 1979...smile never showed its ugly face. So shopping for another 30ish after 12yrs i will fearlessly grab a Cat that has the smile ...there are many other boats with other keel problems that are much worse. The smile is almost like a clutch in a BMW every 100k mi. PIA but... just roll your sleves up and do it. ... The bolts will be something ill be more critical of. Get one of those spinning free and ya got a real problem!... Thanks for the vid. Good luck and fair winds.

Great vid ty

Thank you for the video I am currently looking to buy a 87 Catalina 36 and I noticed on one side of the keel it has a crack and I was thinking the worst but after watching your video I am not too concerned about it but it does give me bargaining leverage for the price!

95 Catalina 320 Wing Keel... just put on the hard today.. and wouldn't you know it.. BAMN... what a pain in the axxx... Your video gives me hope.....keel nuts are 1.5 inch.. need to verify torque lbs to 235...... fun times brother...!! Appreciate your video..KF

Thanks for sharing about to do the same on my 36 ft

cheers

Hello! This was very helpful. I have to do the same repair on my Catalina 34. When grinding out the groove what type of disk did you use on the grinder?

Just watched this video (great by the way). We have purchased a 1989 36 cat pending survey and it has a similar crack. I want to get a torque wrench on the keel bolts at the survey. What is the nut size and torque? I would not have attempted this repair without your video. We are now big fans thanks again! Shawn

5200 is good stuff and should work. However, in West Systems Fiberglass Boat Repair & Maintenance manual 002-550 page 55, says to use G/flex 655. That it has 32% elongation before breaking, which helps to prevent cracks from reappearing in the joint. Maybe because old school guys have been using 5200 is why Catalinas are known for having the cracks in the first place?

How did it fair over time? I think I’ll try this stuff to repair the gouges and scrapes my boat received under the waterline during Hurricane Ian.

When you grind out the crack, you're going through fiberglass? Do you get down to lead at some point? How do you know how far to go?

Thanks for posting this video, super helpful. What was the Torque Spec for the bolts?

I might have missed it in the video but what value did you torqued the bolts and where did you get the torque value? I've had my 87 Catalina 30 MKII for 9 years, about 6 or 7 years ago I fixed the Catalina smile that formed over that winter. I remember finding conflicting torque values when I googled it, this is why I am asking since it might help some folks who need to torque their bolts. The video is good, the jumping around time wise was not an issue.

what did you torque your keel bolts down to. Manual I think says 50 Ft. Lbs. I see other people only do 30. What did you think. And how hard was it to get to the one under the engine and did you use a open end wrench that attaches to the torque wrench

Do you perhaps know from what year the Catalina 30's no longer had this problem? or do they all have the 'smile' issue?

Do you put a barrier coat of total faire?

Why not use Total Boat fairing for the entire filling job? The 3M sealant is an amazing product but I never saw it applied and then covered with a hard epoxy....

How did it hold up this last year?

🐙🐙🐙🍾🍾🍾

well don't that you for the video

FF the talking, not the repairs. Talk over the repair

Catalina Keel bolt torques per model from Catalina Direct site: www.catalinadirect.com/images/features/Keel%20Bolt%20Schedule%20.pdf?CFID=29941113&CFTOKEN=828ebf21b3c5e04a-509B0651-BD64-7A66-C61C670BF54E054A