First Boat - Bent Keel and Broken Bow Eye

I just picked up a 1994 Sport Nautique and I'm finding a few things wrong with it now that I have it home.. Look for a recommendation on these problems.. fix it or leave it alone?

First keel fin is bent:


Upper bow eye screws are missing and it rotates freely - not sure how this is attached and if it was ever meant to support much pulling force.

Welcome aboard, you bought a nice boat. Nautiques will show the quality of build more and more as you own it.
If you choose to straighten that front fin they don't fall off when you take out the screws.
I think they are also glued on with 3M 5200 and it is pretty strong adhesive.
A simple method to remove it once the srews are out is to take wooden door shims, they sell them at the hardware stores, tapered shims about 10" long and 1.5 inches wide.
They taper down to sharp points.
I took these shims and started tapping one in between the boat and the Fin base.
As soon as one shim starts to go in start another beside it. Get 3 or 4 going in at the same time and it will pop off the fin without doing any damage to your hull or the fin.
The dried adhesive will still need to be scraped off the hull. I used a automotive gasket scraper and it took the old glue off quickly.   I used the wire wheel of a bench grinder to clean the base of the brass fin.   Maybe others have faster or easier ways to do this but this worked for me.
I do not know how you should straighten the fin. I would think you would need to heat it to help straighten it.   I would wait for advice before trying. Someone will chip in good tips.

2 hammers will fix the fin

Haha thanks for the tips! I took the boat out on Monday and.. Protec be damned, the boat ran great!

I didn't notice anything drastically bad with the handling (especially when turning) but may need to test in glassy water. The steering wheel was about 70 degrees turned to the right to go straight but I'm not sure if that was the keels effect so I may just take the steering wheel off and spin it back. I'd rather not go through the process of fixing the keel until I have some more boating driving hours under my belt.

For the bow eye - does anyone know how it's attached within the hull? I figure that it's bolted in with some nuts on either side of a chassis mount and the nuts loosened up. Doesn't sound fixable without a major tear up so I may just make sure it's sealed well. There was only one screw in the two holes when I got to it and when I tried to remove the remaining screw the damn head broke off. I'm guessing people are going to be pulling on it for whatever reason and I'm going to cringe every time.

Anyway, boat is awesome -- changing the fluids and impeller along with some cosmetic touch ups this weekend.

Thanks
Payton

On your Pro Tech, I believe I have read that set up ran really strong, until they don't.

Payton91 wrote: For the bow eye - does anyone know how it's attached within the hull? I figure that it's bolted in with some nuts on either side of a chassis mount and the nuts loosened up. Doesn't sound fixable without a major tear up so I may just make sure it's sealed well. There was only one screw in the two holes when I got to it and when I tried to remove the remaining screw the damn head broke off. I'm guessing people are going to be pulling on it for whatever reason and I'm going to cringe every time. Thanks Payton

So, the LIFTING RING, which is what you have illustrated, is threaded onto a vertical rod that is firmly anchored into the hull. Then is is secured by 2 screws (one of which it sounds like you broke) to prevent it from spinning.
It is primarily used for lifting the boat off the trailer, or suspending the boat in a boat house.


The BOW EYE (which is not illustrated) is a u-shaped ring mounted below the deck (at the front) and is used primarily to secure the boat to the trailer, or as a tow point when disabled.