Hey...Dauntless here checking in. Yep, I pulled the swing keel on Dauntless and replaced the pins. They were not tapered, just straight half inch diameter bronze rod. I replaced them with the same. When I reworked the swing keel the hole for the pivot pin was sloppy,so after fairing the body of the swing keel I drilled out the hole and epoxied in half inch bronze bushings. Two reasons,,,,1 to stop the slop and keep the keel from banging back and forth...and 2, I figured bronze on bronze would be better than bronze on cast iron. Realistically it probably makes no difference at all seeing as how Dauntless spent 20+ years immersed in warm salt water (had no trailer) and the pins, although showing some crevis corrosion, did not appear to be in any jeopardy of failing. The new pins were driven in by a sledge hammer and punch and seated tightly. However, after a rowdy sail on the coast I did notice that the pivot pin had walked about a quarter inch so the next time I had the boat out I ground down both sides of the pin as well as a small circular depression around them and layered some glass over both sides. I've had no problems since then. And Bill's right. There probably isn't anyplace better on the face of the earth for drying out a boat. With 110-115 degrees a common afternoon high, overnight low of 90 and relative humidity of under 10%, the summertime heat that I curse so bad each year actually worked in my favor. Dauntless was WET....very wet. I opened thousands, and I'm not exaggerating here, of blisters and made that now infamous decision to cut the keel open and remove all the wet and rusting steel ballast. She was on the boat stands and exposed to the dry air for 6 months. I don't know how long it would have taken to get her dry in a humid environment. I probably could have closed her up quicker and been fine but wanted to make sure she was dry dry dry. So far so good. I haven't seen a hint of a recurrence of a blister so far and hope I never will! If you need bronze rod to replace your pins you can get it a lot cheaper than I did from Duckworks Boat Builders Supply _http://www.duckworksbbs.com/_ (http://www.duckworksbbs.com/) I wish I had known about them at the time I was doing the project. Their bronze rod is only a quarter the price I paid. To anyone doing any of those jobs...blisters,pins, keel rebuild, bottom job......I feel your pain! hang in there. Hopefully you already realize what a great boat you have and that it's worth every miserable day of the job! Hope everyone is staying safe and warm. This is our time of the year to sail here in AZ. Love to have you come down and join us in Feb for our Pocket Cruiser Get-Together and Poker Run. It'll still be cool...but our water will be "soft". Sean
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