Hi Mike, I'm pretty sure I owned your boat earlier this year. I bought it from a retired structural engineer who only replaced the aft and forward bolts as he figured that was enough. I talked to none other than Tom Schock about the problem and he felt that four good stainless steel bolts should be enough to hold it. As a dissenting opinion, the boat yard manager at Svendson's told me "I would never sail with a liability like that". I hauled your boat out in July with the intent of replacing the four galvenized bolts while I was painting the bottom. I used lots of PB Blaster over several days and a big breaker bar. I could only get two of the four nuts off, and even those bolts I couldn't pound out with a regular hammer. Consequentaly, I just re-torqued all eight nuts. It was hard to get excited about paying a yard $1,000 plus dollars to do the job. FYI, the standing rigging on that boat was replaced in 2001 and the bottom paint (petit trinidad) was done in July. It's a great little boat. I'd still own it except I found a 2001 Santana 22! Let me know if you have any other questions about the boat. Cheers, Jim

:: I just recentley purchased a '66 and was wondering about
:: the safety of the keel bolts. Looks like 4 of the 8
:: bolts have been changed to stainless. The two at both
:: ends have been changed. The 4 bolts in the middle do
:: look rusty. I am hoping that I can wait awhile before
:: the big expense of replacing the other 4.