Keel bolt #3 - Struggle continues

Came back from Poland after Xmas loaded with beautiful oak, 50mm thick!
It will be used for ribbs renovation and - if needed - for new floors, if my struggle with keel bolt #3 will force me to demolish floors through which it passes.

Anyway - this prima sort oak costed me a fraction of the price I would need to pay in Sweden - and I did not have to beg for it! Just went to local lumberyard and picked the one I wanted.
Big contrast to dealing with Pondus Snickeri in Stockholm where they struggle to keep their word in replying my request for lumber.
Well, another lesson for me: don’t buy things in Sweden where people are lazy and spoiled.
Go to Poland or Germany if you want to deal with reliable and trustworthy people.

After getting some advices from Marek and buying oil for drilling I was ready to try drilling through the bolt.

The principle seemed OK:
3/4 inch pipe will guide the drill. Filling the pipe with oil and drilling slowly should prevent burning the drill.

All seemed well until I passed the pipe and the drill entered deeper layers of healthy iron and rust around it.

Then the drill started to wander and it slipped from iron core into softer surroundings. Shit!

I aborted drilling to minimise damage and lit the pipe to think about next step: how about taking the rust surrounding first - as being softer - and then drill or hammer down the iron core?

From the remaining part of the 3/4 inch pipe I’ve made a simple hole saw: teeth were cut with grinder and sharpened, then hardened with flame and quenching in water.
Hole in the top part gives a grip for simple handle and will be used to extract the pipe if it gets stucked in the deep hole.

This setup seems to work better than drilling alone. It bites through softer iron oxide and the pipe accommodates hard iron core of the keel bolt which serves also as guiding.

It’s hard physical workout but seeing progress is satisfying. With this approach I intend to go as deep as I can with the pipe and encapsulate the iron bolt inside. Then I can put a steel rod into the pipe and bang the bolt down - with pipe protecting it from buckling to surrounding oak.

To encourage the bolt movement I will heat it up with acetylene burner till it gets red. If that will not make it move I will try breaking the bonds with sledgehammer.
Sharpening or re-making saw teeth will be probably required along the way but the pipe is long so I have some spare material to sacrifice.

Well, that is the current plan.

However - I’ve started planning major rebuilt in coming years - seeing the state of decomposition of these backbone fastenings.
This will be a big job: dropping the ballast keel, opening the bottom of the boat and removing the backbone for making a new oak keel, new floors and new dead wood.
This will enable me replacing all keel bolts at once - and making new dead wood - possibly from plastic bars like the ones used by Louis Sauzedde:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcBdvChtQkU&list=PLzlN3A2DLgNwWFZPXuH83wDY95x3FPdgD

I’m not 100% purist and deadwood - being a spacer only - is a good candidate to be replaced with something more durable, giving years of trouble-free usage and protecting iron bolts from tannin acid present in oak. Using plastic can also be a good protection if I chose to use bronze bolts in this part of the boat.

Such job will probably require moving the boat from Rosättra Servicevarvet to my own workshop so next year I will reserve place for big workshop in my boat club. This will enable me working undisturbed in my own (rented) space without endangering neighbouring boats.

But this year I want to sail her!
I’ve just picked new main sail from Gdansk - Sailservice:
http://www.sailservice.pl/about-us/

The sail looks beautiful, costs less than half of the cost I would need to pay in Sweden - and folks in Gdansk are very responsive and very fast in building sails. And they don’t ask stupid questions like Gransegel: why do you need 3 reefing lines on the the sail… Well, Gransegel - not your business! I want them and I pay for them!

Well, till next time - let’s see if hole saw and sledge hammer will make a trick with this stubborn keel bolt #3.