[Rhodes22-list] Cracks in keel

[The Rhodes 22 Email List]

Graham,

I love your lift. Maybe I will build one some day. It would make bottom painting so much easier. 

I have not done any of this work (hope I never will) so I cannot offer advice. 

Stephen Staum
s/v Carol Lee 2
Needham, MA

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 17, 2014, at 4:31 PM, The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org> wrote:

> I have finally put my boat  into the lift I built so that I can begin work
> on the cracks in the keel and would welcome any advice as to how this might
> be fixed and speculation as to the cause so that I might prevent it from
> happening again.
> 
> Picture 1 is of the boat in the lift. This allows me to get under the keel
> to work in reasonable comfort.
> The next two pictures show the cracks with the camera under the keel looking
> up. The centreboard is removed. The cracks run along the edge where the
> bottom of the keel meets the inside of the centreboard slot.
> 
> As for the cause, I suspect that some time in the past the keel was damaged
> leaving a crack that allowed water to enter where it might have froze in the
> winter doing further damage. On the other hand I would have thought that the
> water would have drained out before freezing temperatures were reached.
> 
> There appears to be voids in the keel. The last shot shows were I was
> drilling out osmosis blisters and went right through the skin into a void.
> Tapping on the skin often creates a hollow sound suggesting that there are
> plenty more voids. It seems to me that voids under the skin are a recipe for
> problems. Drilling holes and pumping in epoxy would not be that difficult
> for those I find under the outside skin but would be much more difficult for
> voids under the skin in the centreboard slot - which currently looks intact.
> I thought I might drill a series of holes through the cabin bottom into the
> keel and push more epoxy down from above. To find voids I might need to
> drill a lot of holes.
> 
> As for the cracks, my current plan, absent any other ideas, is to open the
> cracks to allow access with a cartridge tip and force thickened epoxy up
> into the crack. I would then apply layers of cloth and epoxy from about 3"
> up to the slot down and around the bottom and up 3" on the outside. I have
> ground out a bevel on the inside to allow for layers of cloth to be added
> without making the slot too narrow for the centreboard. 
> 
> When all that is done I plan to do the whole bottom - drill out blisters and
> do the blister prevention program recommended by West System. I don't want
> to ever do this again so suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance.
> 
> Graham 
> 
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