Sorry to hear this. I have always been thankful for my PO who moved up to a 42. He was meticulous with maintenance and didn't do a single dumb installation, so there was nothing for me to undo. There wasn't even a stereo installed, I got to set it up just like I wanted it. Hope you get everything fixed OK, aren't there special bits for backing out broken bolts? That might save you drilling a bigger hole. Good luck.

Mike

You've had the boat for two years. It's time that it is all your boat, not his, anymore. My PO did not do what most everyone considers the ESSENTIAL alternator bracket replacement for our M25 engine. The old bracket broke six months later, slamming the alternator into the oil filter and making, as you can guess, quite a mess. Did I blame him? How could I? I had bought the boat.

I had the lag bolts back out of the holes on our engine mounts. Instead of epoxy I used silicone sealant to keep them in. Most of the bolt load is in shear, so keeping the bolts in helps, which is why he did it. Many say the torque of the engine requires the bolts to be used to hold one side of the engine down -- there's some truth to this conjecture, although I believe the weight of the engine is sufficient. The epoxy he did didn't require any drilling on his part, although I understand what it is you describe that you need to do. I agree, that's what I would do or do as suggested above.

You have a month til your cruise. If it's only two engine mounts and they are the ones you can get to, this is a 2 hour job, at the worst a whole day. Even if all four mounts and all eight lag bolts, once you do the first two, you'll get good at it and the rest will go quickly. :) Think of this as advantage and a challenge and an opportunity in a time of crisis to grow. Many folks have lag bolts backing out and need to reinstall them. Why? Because the wood in the stringer is all used up and they need thicker bolts and pretty much the same drilling effort.

Stu,

I must disagree with your repair scheme, it may well last the life of your boat but, consider that every time you shift into gear or rapidly advance the throttle the engine torques and trys to lift one side of the engine up causing more load on the remaining solidly mounted bolts, these will eventualy loosen up as well.

The bolts in normal motoring are mostly in shear but there are times they can see a significant load in tension. If you take a serious knockdown that would be the case, the last thing I would want in such a condition would to have a 250 pound chunk of steel flopping loose in the bilges ripping the shaft out of the stern tube.

Your repair may be an OK temporary fix, I assume you checked to make sure the wood was not soft the bolt threads into as this may mean none of your bolts have any grip. Using expoxy for this repair would be a far better way of dealing with this as it will restore some strength to the attachment.

I have made my share of Rube Goldberg repairs aboard in my day, most work out just fine over time, the next owner may have unkind thoughts about me and my mother when seeing these but, if we are advising other as to how to address this issue I do not feel silicone is the best method.

This is a forum, and full of opinions, I just needed to voice mine.

Steve, I agree. The point of my post was not to detail the way I prepared the holes, but since you asked... I cut up and installed a bunch of toothpicks and stuck 'em down the hole and sealed them a half hour or so before I put the lag bolts back in. That was two years ago, engine hasn't moved. Well, at least it's still there when I motor, start, stop, reverse and chug along! :D

The devil's in the details for using an epoxy fix, because that means you HAVE to move the motor mounts to drill, epoxy and re-drill out, which I was not prepared to do. The toothpick idea is an old carpenter's trick taken to, I must admit, the extreme, but it works. I've have had this comment from everyone who hears about it, not unexpected. Only needed on two different bolts on two different mounts, too.

Well geeze Stu, you did not mention you used toothpicks as well.

In fact that may be a very effective repair and one I have used in several situations. Assuming that the wood is still sound in the engine mount log, toothpicks will restrore much of the grip of the lag bolt and silicone will seal out moisture. Though redrilling the bolt hole after filling with epoxy may not be required. On my last boat I had this issue, on that installation I drilled out the hole two sizes up, until I came up with fresh dry wood. I then augreedr out the hole by moving the drill around in the hole to make the bottom larger than the top, filled the hole up about half way with epoxy, coated the bolt with wax so the epoxy would not stick to it and ran it back in the hole, let the epoxy set then removed the bolt and ran it in and torqued it down, it held solidly. If the hole is just stripped and not rotten this can be done with out drilling and augering the hole and just using the epoxy and a mold release on the bolt. If you restore the grip you are in business and yes your toothpicks may well do this just as well, your original discription indicated you may have just used silicone, a miracle product as adhesive in some applications and a good sealant but, I would not trust it to hold my engine in place by itself.

Did you use round toothpicks or flat ones? I understand that the mint flovored ones also deter termites.

Well, on another note, the heading for this thread certainly struck a chord with us. We've done major overhauls on pretty much every system on this boat. Every time I start a project, I come across something that has been done to the boat that was really badly done, some of it would fall into the outrageous category it's so bad, especially the wiring. Like circuits with no protection and speaker wire used to carry current. So each project grows in size, cost, time and annoyance factor accordingly.

My wife has spent days scrubbing and cleaning every nook and cranny in the cabins, it's pretty clear not much of that has taken place in the last few years.

So yeah, we're also not the biggest fans of the PO.

The upside is that I am really getting to know the ins and outs of the systems in this boat in detail and they're getting put together the way I want them to be and that's a good thing.

[QUOTE=Steve Frost;5462]Well geeze Stu, you did not mention you used toothpicks as well.

Did you use round toothpicks or flat ones? I understand that the mint flovored ones also deter termites.[/QUOTE]

Round, plain, no colors, no flavoring! :) I just knew I'd elicit the correct methodology with my toothpicks story. BTW, here they are:

" There is nothing--absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."
Wind in the willows

Is this not what our boating enthusiasm is all about? Just read through this forum! As Stu mentioned sometimes these experiences are what make us grow. Evey PO is not a master craftsman, mechanic, or Captain. The truth be known it is those that are not, whom make it possible to experience a terrific deal. Unfortunately some repairs are just rube-goldbergs as mentioned and we hope even pray the surveyor will find them before our purchase, but alas if we want a perfect world, this is not the place. :)

The PO of my first boat gave me hours of 'pleasure' learning the ropes of boat systems. The boat was a used 70's Watkins 27, purchased from the dealer I later bought my '88 C30 and current '97 C36 from (both new). Nothing electrical worked, except the nav and interior lights. Investigating, I found a spaghetti tangle of red #20 wire, all connected directly to the battery posts, no fuses. Decided to replace it all, but none of the wire would come out of the passage through the bulkhead. Reaching in, I felt a large lump; gave it a good tug and out came a golfball sized blob of melted plastic and copper. I don't know if the wires chaffed together or what, but it's amazing that it hadn't started a fire. So, new fuse panel w/switches, couple spools of duplex #14 and a real education in wiring a boat.

Then my goof. Installed a filter/separator in the diesel fuel line. I'd read that was a good thing to have so in it went. Engine worked fine until my 1st long trip to my marina. Engine kept quitting; air in the lines. Bleed it out, on we go. Quits again. Repeated all day. Oooooh, you're supposed to put teflon tape on the brass hose fittings, eh? Guess that's important....:rolleyes:

Good experience, sure, but it was also a good demonstration in what NOT to do. And I was able to sell/trade the boat in after 2 years for the same $$ as I paid for it. Not a bad bargain for a 2 year education.

Being mechanically inclined, I don't think I've left anything on the 2 boats I traded in, that would cause the next owner to curse the PO. But you never know.

[QUOTE=plaineolde;5890]The PO of my first boat gave me hours of 'pleasure' learning the ropes of boat systems. The boat was a used 70's Watkins 27, purchased from the dealer I later bought my '88 C30 and current '97 C36 from (both new). Nothing electrical worked, except the nav and interior lights. Investigating, I found a spaghetti tangle of red #20 wire, all connected directly to the battery posts, no fuses. Decided to replace it all, but none of the wire would come out of the passage through the bulkhead. Reaching in, I felt a large lump; gave it a good tug and out came a golfball sized blob of melted plastic and copper. I don't know if the wires chaffed together or what, but it's amazing that it hadn't started a fire. So, new fuse panel w/switches, couple spools of duplex #14 and a real education in wiring a boat.

[/QUOTE]

Wait. Are you saying that you bought the C30 and C36 new from the factory? That would mean that they were wired by the manufacturer (Catalina) as you found them. Am I understanding you right?

Yes the Catalinas were both new. The creative wiring was on the used Watkins 27, my first boat. Wiring on the Catalinas was fine (except for a wire to the bow navigation light on the C30, that was pinched by a stanchion washer; it would shock me any time my hands were wet and I touched both the lifelines and wheel. But that's another story...).