CD27 Ballast Bleeding

[chuck yahrling]

I just had a CD27 surveyed and we found some rust bleeding thru the gel coat on the forward keel. In fact, the bottom 6-10" of the keel seems to be discolored as through it is wet inside. Hammer tapping showed some spots that are bubbled. Anybody have experience with fixing this type of deterioration? In particular, has anybody had to strip the keel down to metal and layup new roving and gel coat on any CD?



yahrling@cybertours.com

[Bob Ohler]

Chuck, My CD 25 D was surveyed this past spring by a man who really knew about CD construction! He told me that CD's sometimes suffer from "purple ooze." Apparently this was a water soluable tracer that was used when the hulls were laid up during construction. The tracer was not used on all models at all times.... but you may have this problem. The tracer would eventually get wet and dissolve creating problems. If you would like to speak to the surveyor in maryland who did my survey, leave me a message and I'll get you his phone number.
Sincerely,
Bob Ohler
CD25D Hull #2



Bobohler@chesapeake.net

[Bob Miller]

I just had a CD27 surveyed and we found some rust bleeding thru the gel coat on the forward keel. In fact, the bottom 6-10" of the keel seems to be discolored as through it is wet inside. Hammer tapping showed some spots that are bubbled. Anybody have experience with fixing this type of deterioration? In particular, has anybody had to strip the keel down to metal and layup new roving and gel coat on any CD?

Chuck - As you know, lead does not rust. On my CD 27, I had the surveyor
do a moisture measurement survey using an instrument called a Sovereign
Model 425B, which utilizes radio frequency energy to measure the changes
in transmissibility through fiberglass caused by moisture content within
the laminate. A uniform moisture level of 5 - 10 % below the waterline
and less than 5% above the waterline is good. The primary purpose in
conducting the survey is to evaluate a vessel's propensity for future
osmotic blistering of the gelcoat. (By the way, these values are for
dry-land stored vessels - as in Long Island and New England winters).
Hope this is of help to you, I personally, would check it out a little
further and not be pressured to buy the boat quite yet. A CD 27 has
internal ballast and the lead is surrounded by fiberglass, so the rust
is a bit of a puzzle to me. Keep me posted...Bob Miller

[chuck yahrling]

I just had a CD27 surveyed and we found some rust bleeding thru the gel coat on the forward keel. In fact, the bottom 6-10" of the keel seems to be discolored as through it is wet inside. Hammer tapping showed some spots that are bubbled. Anybody have experience with fixing this type of deterioration? In particular, has anybody had to strip the keel down to metal and layup new roving and gel coat on any CD?

Chuck - As you know, lead does not rust. On my CD 27, I had the surveyor
do a moisture measurement survey using an instrument called a Sovereign
Model 425B, which utilizes radio frequency energy to measure the changes
in transmissibility through fiberglass caused by moisture content within
the laminate. A uniform moisture level of 5 - 10 % below the waterline
and less than 5% above the waterline is good. The primary purpose in
conducting the survey is to evaluate a vessel's propensity for future
osmotic blistering of the gelcoat. (By the way, these values are for
dry-land stored vessels - as in Long Island and New England winters).
Hope this is of help to you, I personally, would check it out a little
further and not be pressured to buy the boat quite yet. A CD 27 has
internal ballast and the lead is surrounded by fiberglass, so the rust
is a bit of a puzzle to me. Keep me posted...Bob Miller

[Dana Arenius]

Hi Chuck,

I am going to take a wild guess. The problem may be a void between the lead ballast and the hull laminate at that specific point. The rust colored water may be from bilge water due to such things as rusty chain in the forward chain locker or rusting bilge pump parts, etc.

I have seen Cape Dory install this solid piece of lead ballast into the forward keel area. Normally these are well "bedded" into this forward section of the keel and it is normally well sealed over with glass. But if there is a leak into this void because of an improper seal over the ballast then it might be possible for the void to fill with water. If your boat is pulled for a cold climate winter, then it may also be subject to freezing, ice expansion, and laminate blistering in that area.

I think you might be talking about grinding away this section, filling the void, reglassing the area, gel recoat, and then resealing (glassing) over the ballast in the bilge or finding the leak from above. Any good repair yard should be able to handle this. If you are thinking of handling this yourself, grab hold of one of the rental tapes from West Marine on hull repair to get an idea of what may be involved in the glass work.


Dana



darenius@aol.com

[Dana Arenius]

Chuck,

I forgot to mention that I onced tangled with a submerged rock ledge just outside my slip in Rhode Island. It took a chunk off the bottom of my aft leading edge of the keel. I did the repair with the standard mat/roving/mat, etc. that you find in most repair books and videos. It does require a good grinding machine, etc. but I did not have too much problem with it.

Dana



darenius@aol.com

[chuck yahrling]

Chuck,

I forgot to mention that I onced tangled with a submerged rock ledge just outside my slip in Rhode Island. It took a chunk off the bottom of my aft leading edge of the keel. I did the repair with the standard mat/roving/mat, etc. that you find in most repair books and videos. It does require a good grinding machine, etc. but I did not have too much problem with it.

Dana

Thanks. I've gone over this again with the surveyor and evidently the weeping "rust" might be from a bunch of trivial sources such as die on the inside of the fiberglass cavity mold, ferrous residue from the inside of the ballast mold and impurties in the lead itself. At any rate, my original fear of major re-surfacing of the keel seems to be unwarranted; the separation is limited to some bubbled spots that can be ground away, filled, and re-coated with various epoxy products just for this type of thing. My major concern is that the price I'm negotiating discounts for the fair cost of this work, and I think it does (or will.)



yahrling@cybertours.com