10/04/2026
I tried to be gentle and remove in one piece, but it was apparently never meant to come off. 😣⛵️
Our Seaward 25 sailboat has a persistent leak, (and no bilge) and it looks like the front keel bolt is where the issue is, despite resealing the front section of the keel a few days back where there was a visible gap. (Photo in comments)
We took it to the lake yesterday to see if that fixed the leaking, but it somehow was coming in FASTER after the repairs?!?😖
(we even put water INSIDE the boat once we got home and looked for leaks on the outside of the hull, but absolutely NOTHING, not a single drip. 🤯)
The only thing left to do was to take up the permanently adhered floor and see what was under it and find the keel bolts.
Once the wood was destroyed, I had to chip away at the hard pink material that was poured into the many circle holes cut in the floor, to access the front keel bolt. (This is where all the water was laying)
This pink stuff seems to be a filler material that was poured between the hull and the liner of the boat after it was assembled, to fill the space and make it solid by the looks of it.
Maybe I’ll tear into this and make my own small bilge if possible?! 🤷🏼♂️
The floor had a lot of black on the bottom of the wood, where it has been wet for a while, so it’s best it came up so we can fix it. 🙁
