Question:
I was hoping that I could get some advice on repairing
fiberglass on a damaged keel. I was out on Lake Erie and lost my engine
and ended up slamming into the breakwall a few times before getting a
tow. It put a 1"x3" hole in the side of my keel. I've read up on
fiberglass repair, including the book "The Fiberglass Boat Repair
Manual."
My question is this... The flat bottom of the keel was not very
accessible, so I just wrapped the fiberglass around and under the keel.
Is this going to cause me any long term problems? Ideally, I would've
ground out around the bottom like I did the top, but I just couldn't
get access without lifting the boat off the trailer.
The boat is old and cosmetics aren't important. I just want a sound,
safe repair. I've applied about 5-6 layers of 6 oz. fiberglass cloth
w/Mas Resin & Fast Hardner. I'd rather not grind it all down and start
over if it's good enough as is.
Answer:
- I have look at the pictures. They do not tell me much.
What type of keel do you have: lead, cast iron, fiberglass encapsulated.
Lead and cast iron keel are not much of a problem when it come to a 1"x3"
hole.
They are two type of fiberglass encapsulated, one type is made out of a
spitted mold and the inside filled with solid lead or some any other solid
material is used for weight.
The other type of encapsulated keel uses lead pellets for weight of any
other loose material.
When you punched in a hole in a encapsulated keel you have to drill small
diameter holes around the puncture area to dry the fiberglass. It take
about one Saison to get the water out completely.
Otherwise, the water will wick into the fiberglass hull and cause structural
damage at a later time. Without knowing what type of keel and boat you have
I can only speculate.
- I'm not entirely sure what it is...I think it's fiberglass
encapsulated. There's some solid material in the center, but I'm not
sure what it is. It doesn't seem like metal. If it helps, the boat is a
1972 O'Day 22".
When the hole was exposed, I could reach in and move the center
material back and forth a couple inches. I also let it dry out for a
couple weeks.
- I just typed a long reply to your other identical post in
rec.boats.building WITHOUT the additional info you just posted. This
was because you MULTIPOSTED. THIS IS WORSE THAN CROSS POSTING. I see
you are using google groups, but even that kludgy interface can handle
cross posting. If you had put [ rec.boats.building, rec.boats.cruising
] (without the [] of course) in the box just above '(Separate multiple
groups with commas)' you would have xposted (cross posted) it ok. (I
just did a test to confirm this) If Xposting, make sure your message is
appropriate and on topic for each group, (rule of thumb, NOTHING is ever
appropriate for more that 3 groups) or you will get a serious roasting
from regulars on those groups. Thats enough nettiquette for one day :-)
You shouldn't have a void in the bottom of your keel with loose stuff
inside. An empty or foamed void is possible if the designer got the
trim wrong and they had to move ballast forward or aft between the
prototytpe and the main production run. Did you grind back the edges of
the hole on the side of the keel far enough to make sure there is no
delamination? A better description of the loose stuff in the centre
would help, Is it smoothish and regularily shaped or jagged chunks?
I cant help feeling you may have lost a quantity of loose ballast out of
the hole. At this point you may well need to talk to a pro who knows
O'Days.
