Hi Gvain,
We have not had to do any fairing of any kind on our keel. As far as I can tell, it is only coated with bottom
paint. Maybe your previous owner put an
epoxy barrier coat over the entire bottom of the boat, and that is what he meant by "encapsulated"? **
If the
epoxy, or whatever it is (could just be a layers of hard
paint), is in good shape and still adhering, I don't know why you wouldn't simply
paint over it.
**Yeah, despite what the previous owner told you, Crealock 37s do not have encapsulated ballast. At least not encapsulated in the usual sense, which typically refers to ballast placed into a portion of the fibreglass hull that is shaped like a keel.
Our boats hav an external lead keel casting that is bolted to a keel sump/stub in the hull. It is the same for any of the Pacific Seacraft models with fin keels (i.e. Crealock 31, 34, 37, 40, and 44). Only the older designs with full keels (Flicka, PSC 25, Mariah 31) and the Dana 24 had internal, encapsulated ballast.