At the age of thirty years, the keel bolts should be presumed to be past
their useful life. At the barest minimum, it'd be prudent to remove one or
two to assess their condition. Chances are good that they're significantly
wasted and ready for replacement. This is not a trivial job, but necessary.
If you're in doubt about this, consult a surveyor.

Ignore this at your peril. How would the boat fare if the ballast fell off
and left you with a few new holes in the hull? Before it sank, would it
invert?


David Cranch wrote:

Can anyone suggest a way to stop leakage through narrow gaps between
an iron keel shoe and a bilge keel?
The gaps are relative short (a centimetre or three), and possibly the
result of long-term (thirty years) corrosion of the upper surface of
the keel shoe where it rests against the bottom of the GRP bilge keel.
The leakage water appears to travel upwards through the hollow bilge
keels and thence through the GRP hull itself to appear as sweat in one
location and a puddle in another.
The previous owner possibly had the problem some fifteen years ago
because some hard-setting cement compound appears to have been applied
to the keel-shoe interface. The compound is gradually being lost, or
becoming ineffective
I guess a fifteen-year solution would suit me, the question is - how
to go about it.