restoring a victoria

hi guys
i was looking at my old victoria. it had last seen the water 4 years ago. i got it out. and found out that the keel bolt had seized inside the sleeve, i have never had this problem before, my seawind is fine. I i was just wondering if anybody here have had this problem? and if you have. what did you use. i cannot find"oil of wintergreen" anymore. anybody else have any good ideas. on getting the rod out?
cougar

OK, don’t laugh but “Mouse Milk” is a penetrating oil that the mechs used on the airplanes quite often. Comes in a very small can and seemed to work quite well. Barring that… is it the shaft rusted inside the tube? Or is it just the nut that is seized? The keel comes in a parts bag that may be purchased seperately from the kit and comes along with the rudder and I believe the keel bulb itself. Since the racing community has discovered a huge variation in the bulb weights as supplied from the mfg, the package of parts has become quite popular.

Mouse Milk got in and loosened parts where other oils could not get it done.

Let me know how it works out for you.

I can almost guarantee that the shaft has rusted inside the tube.

On my Victoria I take the keel out at least once every 2 weeks, at which point it always shows some signs of rust, which a quick clean and a wipe of grease controls.

Sorry - that doesn’t help in your current situation though Cougar.

For all things rust-related:

www.theruststore.com

Evapo-rust is a-mazing.

Cheers,

Earl

well god dammit
the victoria keel bolt is no longer attached. the damm thing is still stuck in the sleeve. but it is free from the fin. i got removesall. I was talking to a mechanic. about seized engines. and seized parts. this is what they use. and so i got a bottle. and for a few seconds. i thought it was going to work. but then realized that the plyers was turning and not the bolt. i then tapped it with a hammer. and the fin dropped off. i did not see the crack in the side. SOO i broke it loose from the fin. the rod is STILL attached to the F****ng sleeve.
well it looks like the boat is headed for the great garbage heap in the sky
cougar

Why pitch it? Just cut the bolt inside the hull. It will come out either end, order a new white parts bag and keep right on rolling. you can reach in their with a dremel motor tool and go through it in no time. I think the parts bag is $30.00??? I am guessing… don’t remember… but certainly worth getting and saving the hull. You get a new fin, rudder keel bulb and you are on your way. EVen if you bugger the hull where the tube goes through, that can be repaired.

LL

Cougar -

just send it to me - I’ve got a plasma cutter that will cut out that sleeve in no time. After I’m done, a little epoxy, a little bondo, and a lot of work should make both hull halves one piece again!

Trust me ! :crazy: :icon_tong

My worktable has a plugged-up Victoria keel tube on it, still. I think it also has the broken-off fin. One of these days I gotta clean off that table.

In my case, as this was my first Victoria, only epoxy was holding the tube in the hull, just as per the instructions. It wasn’t difficult to remove the old tube and epoxy in a new one, to hold the new fin. The boat is better than ever, now, with a piece of carbon fiber tubing around the brass tubing to add additional support to the hull. (So now I have to be more careful about removing the fin, cleaning it up, and coating it with Vaseline or some other rust preventative, because the brass tube is no longer so easy to remove from the hull.) You can consider using carbon fiber tubing for the keel tube. Carbon is further from steel on the galvanic series than brass is, so the steel shaft might corrode more, or maybe the carbon will be sufficiently isolated that the shaft will corrode less, but either way the corrosion products will be less likely to stick to the carbon fiber tubing.

I do not remember now just how I removed the original tube, but if I had to do it again, I’d consider reaching inside the hull with pliers and twisting the tube free, then flexing the deck upwards enough to get the tube out. Epoxy doesn’t get a very good grip on ABS plastic. And if you feel too much resistance, you can stop and look for another technique.

Mike Biggs