cal 20 cast iron keel and keel bolt advice? also sailing close to the wind

I recently bought a 1962 Cal 20 for $500. Its a solid enough boat, but the bottom was not well maintained. I am hauling it out soon, and I assume the keel will have at least some rust spots. The tops of the keel bolts, which are visible, are somewhat rusted, but I see no leaks. Is it necessary to replace the keel bolts and repair any visible rust spots in the keel, if I am not planning to race the boat? I do care about boat/hull integrity, but not speed or looks. The boat is mainly for short day cruises in good weather and teaching my son to sail. The other thing sailing upwind. I used to race. Although I am not now, I have noticed that this boat does not sail close hauled, upwind, very well. It doesn't point close to the wind well, for example. The sails are old, and the bottom is recently cleaned by a diver. Is this a characteristic of the Cal 20 design itself, or should I look for something wrong with the boat? I don't want to buy new sails, too much money. thanks! -David

bigredog8 wrote: > I recently bought a 1962 Cal 20 for $500. Its a solid enough boat, but the bottom was not well maintained. I am hauling it out soon, and I assume the keel will have at least some rust spots. The tops of the keel bolts, which are visible, are somewhat rusted, but I see no leaks. Is it necessary to replace the keel bolts and repair any visible rust spots in the keel, if I am not planning to race the boat? I talked with Steve Seal by telephone this spring. He is very generous with advice. He sells the keel bolts but talked me out of buying them, explaining that the originals were pretty durable in boats not kept in marinas with stray electric currents (my boat lies on a mooring in fresh water). He said you can test the bolts by putting a socket wrench on them and turning. If you can take up just a bit on the bolt, it's probably good. If it spins easily, the head is probably rusted or it's otherwise headed toward failure. I have a spring ritual of touching up the rust spots on my keel with Pettit's Rustlok primer and new bottom paint. Remember that the iron keel and the copper-bearing bottom paint make a little battery, and the iron loses. I feel a responsibility to my vessel not to let her rot away in ways that i can easily prevent. I'm not obsessive about fair surfaces underwater since I don't race much, but I don't want the boat to look bad or, to put it plainly, to look like the kind of sailor that lets his keel rust. Chris Campbell Cal 20 #1220, /Martha C/

It haven't seen the boat out of the water yet, so I don't know the condition of the keel. It really bothers me to have issues not addressed, and I would like to fix all of it. Until I see it I guess I won't know. -David --- In Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com, Chris Campbell <clcampbell@...> wrote: > > bigredog8 wrote: > > I recently bought a 1962 Cal 20 for $500. Its a solid enough boat, but the bottom was not well maintained. I am hauling it out soon, and I assume the keel will have at least some rust spots. The tops of the keel bolts, which are visible, are somewhat rusted, but I see no leaks. Is it necessary to replace the keel bolts and repair any visible rust spots in the keel, if I am not planning to race the boat? > I talked with Steve Seal by telephone this spring. He is very generous > with advice. He sells the keel bolts but talked me out of buying them, > explaining that the originals were pretty durable in boats not kept in > marinas with stray electric currents (my boat lies on a mooring in fresh > water). He said you can test the bolts by putting a socket wrench on > them and turning. If you can take up just a bit on the bolt, it's > probably good. If it spins easily, the head is probably rusted or it's > otherwise headed toward failure. > > I have a spring ritual of touching up the rust spots on my keel with > Pettit's Rustlok primer and new bottom paint. Remember that the iron > keel and the copper-bearing bottom paint make a little battery, and the > iron loses. I feel a responsibility to my vessel not to let her rot > away in ways that i can easily prevent. I'm not obsessive about fair > surfaces underwater since I don't race much, but I don't want the boat > to look bad or, to put it plainly, to look like the kind of sailor that > lets his keel rust. > > Chris Campbell > Cal 20 #1220, /Martha C/ >