CD25 Keel rudder Help Pls

[hinmo]

Here we go. My recently purchased CD25 is like an onion. Every peel of the shell is revealing more work. Here's number 1. (See if I have the image inserted correctly). The keel in this area appears to have been repaired already, perhaps the rudder was off. There is a small drill hole in the repair that seeped a little water. Where did it come from? Can I grind down and fix? Is it possible that water in the bilge leaked the length of the keel to this spot (it had some water in the bilge...or rudder shaft? Whats under this area, lead keel, wood, other? BTW - the chain is not taut from the boat stands...

Looks like I am in for some work! Thanks for any help

[Dasein]

Hi John,
hard to see detail of the small drill hole in the image, but any water would have come from outside, not the bilge.

[hinmo]

Hi John,
hard to see detail of the small drill hole in the image, but any water would have come from outside, not the bilge.

There is a small seep hole you that someone drilled (brown in the pic) and appears to be some cracking also.

What is located in that area of the keel (next to rudder step) that has been patched in my photo? is it lead or fiberglass or wood or combination?

I am wondering about the aft keel bilge I hear about on other posts. How far down does it run?

anyone? Thanks

[jepomer]

The rudder's lower gudgeon is normally fully fiberglassed in and not visible. To see the bronze gudgeon (as seen in your photo), one must grind away the fiberglass. There should not be any additional "weep holes" in the area.

[Jerry Hammernik]

I owned a 1978 CD 25. I had water weeping in that area every year after haul out. I drilled a hole in the area to determine what was going on. Turns out there is a void space between the two sides of the keel ahead of the rudder. I had a quality boat yard open it up and fill the void with epoxy. That solved the problem. It seems to be a common issue on the 25 but not life threatening.

[hinmo]

Jerry - thats the best news I have had all week. That sounds like exactly the same condition as mine has. I intent to start taking off the current repair (slowly, with boat savvy friends) and will drain and dry her well, before patching her up.

Thanks !

[gates_cliff]

Although I have a 27 thought I'd add here as I found what appears to be a problem on my keel.

I hope the photos I added show up, but yesterday I noticed what looks like something seeping out of lower edge of keel.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[tjr818]

It is hard to tell from the photos, but how many layers of paint are on that area? Is the paint ablative? Are the "cracks" on both sides. I would start by scraping a small area down to the gelcoat and see what that shows. Here is what our 27 looked like at the last haul out, if that is any help.

Slainte keel at rudder .jpg (786.37 KiB) Viewed 1682 times

[gates_cliff]

I'm sure I have at least 4 or 5 coats of bottom paint in the last 10 years. Oh wait, I had barrier coat applied in 2012, I think it was.

[Peter Nuss]

I'm afraid what you are going to find is this or something like this:




Most of what you see is raw fiberglass cloth, no resin was in this area. Some of what you see is a void with no fiberglass cloth or resin, just a big air pocket. There was a nice thick coat of gelcoat that held the shape of the hull but, no material got down in this area when they laid it up. About 70% of what you see had to be removed to get rid of the rotting fiberglass cloth and to get to solid material in order to start building it up. Of course the cheesy patch job someone did with fiberglass right over the bottom paint didn't do too much to help. But, made it looked good on the stands.

I suggest you get into that area with a grinder and see what you have going on. I really don't know how the rudder shoe stayed on my boat for 36 years like that. Sad part is when the holes were drilled for the rudder shoe, that guy should have noticed the bad job done laying this area up.

This was on a 1980 CD 27.

[Keith]

WOW great pics of a really ugly mess. I have a couple areas on MOON DANCE that weep for a day or two after Fall haul. They are probably 6-9 inches forward of the shoe on a 45 deg angle. I'll have to grind them out and epoxy. Will post pics as well next Spring.

Again great pics!

Keith

[gates_cliff]

I hope the issue isn't like what Peter posted. If it is, well I'll just have to deal with it. I did tap around the whole area and didn't find anything that sounded soft.

I'm open to suggestions as to how to investigate further.

Thanks