Ocean 40 Keel Bolts

[Tsb]

Hi All,

Another Keel Bolt question.....

I'm looking at a 2003 Ocean 40 CC. Boat is in great shape and looks like it's been well maintained etc. However on one of my inspections the aft bilge area around the aft keel bolts was a bit of a mess. I've attached a picture. I was concerned obviously, and tasted the water which was salty. Yikes!!

We gently wiped the nuts and washers, and what looked like rust and corrosion just wiped straight off revealing quite clean steel underneath. You will notice the crystals, which I thought may have been salt are oddly cubed or rectangular. I wouldn't have thought sea water would crystalise like that.

Also the bilge forward of this one is dry and very clean.

Anyway I brought it up with the broker and he thought it was all a bit strange and contacted the owner. Neither of them were able to explain where it had come from. The engine had been serviced recently and the exhaust waterlock had been replaced. We thought maybe something was spilled in the engine bay and made it's way into the bilge.

The broker told me he had gone in and cleaned it all up after this inspection and it has been dry since.

So going forward a few weeks another buyer had a survey (including haul out and hull check) done. This person had to pull out of the deal for personal reasons (all checked out as I looked his facebook page) and I ended up with the survey to read. It was all good and included a pic of the cleaned bilge.

Without mentioning names obviously, the brokerage is reputable and the owner is a sailor that has owned 4 or so boats and sailed in the area for a long time, so while I don't think anything deceptive is going on I would love to hear from any other owners of this vintage Bavaria. Anyone seen this before?

Also for any owners, what do you think of the fiberglass in the bilge. The floor of the bilge doesn't seem flat. It looks raised on either side and the side walls look unevenly brushed. I'm only asking as I don't know what it should look like, is this normal?

If you made this far..... thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any comments.

[sy_Anniina]

2001 AC model should be mostly similar in terms of hull / keel construction so my experience to share:

I have had seawater in bilge due to leak in anchor locker bottom. Water may travel via floor stringers a long time, so at least I needed to wipe the bilge dry several times. Others have had leaks in stanchions, this can be seawater as well when sailing in rough weather.

Regarding fiberglass roughness: I think our bilge looks around the same. This is the fiberglass tape that has been used to laminate the stinger frame/grid to bottom.

BR,

Tommi
s/y Anniina

[catlotion]

My 30 cruiser bilge (factory original).  Not the best photo but the fibre glass and finish looks the same as the one you're looking at...

[Stevie H]

My B36 of 1999 vintage looks the same in the bilge and I recently cleaned out some 'salt residue' that looked just like your pictures, albeit without the water. The reality of these boats is that even the slightest ingress of salt water seems to find its way to the low point, that happens to be where the keel boats are.

[Rampage]

The pictures look absolutely normal for just about any reasonably modern boat.  What has happened is that at some point in time, sea water has made its way into the boat: wave into the cockpit, leaky stanchion, open hatch at sea.  The water the finds it’s way to the bilge, as it’s designed to do.  But because the construction of the boat splits the bilge into a number of compartments, linked by smaller channels, it’s difficult to remove all the sea water without taking up the deck plates.  So some sea water remains in the bilge and evaporates, leaving behind the crystals you saw (salt crystals are cubic, by the way).  That’s also what has led to the rusting on the keel bolts and washers.
The relatively rough finish is down to the fact that once the grid is in place, it’s given a coat of flowcoat resin: essentially a slightly thickened resin that’s used as a paint to finish off areas such as bilges and locker interiors to cover over the raw fibreglass: have a look in the tiller flat to see what raw fibreglass looks like without flowcoat.

[Tsb]

Thanks all for you time and comments. Very much appreciated. This is such a great forum.