Hi One and All, i have a couple of keel bolts that possibly could do with replacing, my question is,, do i have to take the boat out of the water and have it sitting in the keel and replace alll the bolts or can i have it in the water and replace one bolt at a time, i think there are 8 bolts in total and a couple of them look a bit sad, second question, were do i get the bolts from and is there a prefered type ie Stainless steel, Brass, etc
I thought the current bolts were Stainless but as they appear to now have some rust on them im not so sure!!!!
Thanks Ben 405

Contrary to popular belief stainless steel can and will rust under the right conditions. This combined with the fact that there are differing grades of stainless steel some of which will rust just as readily as any other form of steel given the right conditions.

Austenitic stainless is the one least likely to rust but is also the one with the least tensile strength, an example would be 316 grade, on the other hand 304 grade has way more tensile strength but is one of the ones more prone to corrosion.

Reading the article in the supplied link it seems that Beneteau use galvanised bolts in their keels, I am assuming they are high tensile. If using these bolts it would be wise to slather the anti seize compound around very liberally.

Another option would be to use monel bolts, providing they are still to be had and you don't have to sell your soul to the devil. A monel bolt would be in there for the life of the boat.

Yeah. If it was me I'd be taking it out of the water. Seems to me that most jobs on boats always turn into projects because of other problems cropping up. Best be sure. Take it out.
Russ Swan
SV Mirrool
Cairns Marlin Marina