Cd31 keel repair

[jerzyjoe]

As a result of a few groundings over the past 2 years, I have ground the bottom of my keel down to what appears to be fiberglass. The groundings all occurred on sandy bottoms. But drag 5.5 tons across 30 or so yards of sand, your going to remove more than bottom paint. I have attached pics of my keel. Is the keel on this boat made of steel encapsulated in fiberglass? And the big question concerns repair; can I fix this with epoxy and barrier coat?

Thank you
Joe

[Frenchy]

Joe, your boat has a fiberglss encapsulated lead keel, not steel. You won't have any worries about rust.
Your keel looks pretty good, in my unprofessional opinion. It appears that mostly what was abraded off was thick
layers of paint and possibly barrier coat. You should clear off all the paint with a disc sander until you're down to
fiberglass, then evaluate. It looks like you may just have to grind out a few small areas and fill with an epoxy/
silica mixture and smooth. If there is more extensive damage, you may have to lay in a layer or two of
saturated fiberglass cloth. In any case, I doubt you have any real damage there. - Jean

[Jim Walsh]

As Jean stated it appears you’ve done yourself a favor and ground off a couple decades worth of old bottom paint. I’d use 80 grit and an orbital sander to bring it all down to the gelcoat....not so far as to reveal the actual fiberglass, unless completely necessary. Once you are down to the gelcoat you can slather on several coats of the barrier coat of your choice, add antifouling and you’re ready for battle.


This may be helpful. http://www.capedory.org/board/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33884

[John Stone]

Concur with Jean and Jim. If you had compromised the keel you would know.
No doubt about it.

But, if you want, take a metal putty knife and slice/chip off the flaky bottom paint and see what you have. Dollars to donuts it’s only bottom paint and maybe a little gel coat. Worst case you can even it up and level it out with thickened epoxy. Best case, needs nothing and just apply bottom paint. I wouldn’t even bother with barrier coat. Unless the glass is completely dry, as in many months of sitting out of the water with the glass exposed to warm air, you may do more damage barrier coating over a wet hull than if you leave it be. Our boats do not seem to have problems with osmosis in any meaning amount.

[Paul D.]

Ditto what the others say here. Femme had a chunk taken out of her keel bottom years ago by some well intentioned charterers. (I do not charter her anymore!) It was a pretty good Lake Superior rock in Grand Marais harbor too. There was only a 1/2" deep chunk out of the fiberglass layup at the most and there is well over an inch of glass down there before you get to filler and then the lead ballast. Even then, no water would be entering the boat had it gone through. Anyway, I could have sailed with that gouge like that for years but I did patch it up with epoxy w/filler and now I probably couldn't even find it.

[jerzyjoe]

Thank you all for weighing in. I definitely over reacted. I had a pro look at it and his prognosis and repair recommendation echo what you all have said. I am very relieved!

[fmueller]

Hi Joe ... it does look like you are down to "glass" (to me) in the middle photo ... but as everyone is saying, you are going to be ok. Basically if you are going to run aground, a CD is a good boat to do it in.

When I had my boat in Boston Harbor I ran aground on the infamous "lower middle" shoal. It's marked by a green can "3". I thought I had made it past to the next can "5" and cut right into the top of the shoal in about 15 knots - so I was healing pretty good - so when I stopped, boy was I stuck, because the boat tries to "stand up".

Lower middle is really more like a big pile of gravel than a sand bar ... sounded like my boat was being cut up with a chainsaw for 1/2 hour, what a terrifying sound - till Sea Tow pulled me off by dragging me off with my main halyard and 200' of tow line he added; I was sure my mast was going to fold. Found out our boats float "sideways" really well !

Long story short, when I hauled the boat 2 months later, plenty of superficial scratching along about 3' of the starboard "round" of the foot of the keel, and a few 1/2" gouges . Filled the gouges with epoxy, sanded the whole foot down, barrier, bottom paint ... good to go.

I think of that big round keel down there filled with lead and epoxy as my friend now.