keel question

[bogdog]

We purchased a 1979 Irwin C 30 last fall, had it splashed this past spring, and sailed it all summer, including a Lake Michigan crossing. When we had it surveyed last fall it had a fresh coat of bottom paint and looked great. The surveyor didn't note any problems other than a few wet spots on the deck. This fall when looking her over after haul out I noticed the line on the keel similar to "the Catalina smile".
My question is; is this a problem? When I noticed it on our boat, I walked around the 25 or so boats out of the water at our marina, and at least half of them have a similar line on the keel. BTW the boat did not touch the bottom since we have owned her. She sails great. Can't ask the PO he is out of the picture, (health problem).

[drlove]

My Pearson has this too. I fact the owner's manual talks about it. They fair the seam between the keel and stub and the fairing inevitably cracks.

[rperret]

Looks like normal keel-hull joint fairing to me. google irwin to see if there is a class association - or irwin enthusiast website - they have probably dealt with this before.

at any rate - its the joint fairing that needs to be dug out and redone. before you do that though- make sure you retorque the keel bolts too. many techniques to fill the gap and refair -just google "keel hull joint" and you will find much info.

also -are you getting any seawater in the bilge

Rick

[bogdog]

Thanks rperret
Bilge is dry. I haven't checked the keel bolts, but i will. Do you think it is best to torque them when the boat is on the hard? Or wait till spring in the water?

Thanks, Bog

[Drifter2869]

Torque the bolts while on the hard with the weight of the boat on the keel. That is not uncommon to have that hair line crack there on a bolt on keel, if it not leeking water in and bolts are tight I would just put a little 52 hundred over it and bottom paint and go sailing. just my 2 cents.

[bogdog]

Thanks for your 2 drifter. I'm going up in the next week or so and I'll give the bolts a shot. Bog

[JohnRPollard]

Yeah,

I'll agree with the others that that looks pretty normal. You can fair it before you put new bottom paint on and it will last a few years maybe before you have to re-fair it again.

[Maine Sail]

If it was just a crack with no signs of "dripping" I would leave it alone.

Unfortunately when you look closely you'll notice some rust colored drips that start at the keel crack and go all the way to the bottom of the keel.

Any discolored water dripping from a keel joint is never a good sign. It can mean you have a plywood laminated keel stub that is saturated and beginning to rot or that you have some crevice corrosion going on in there. Neither of these scenarios is partuicularly good and they are not ones you'd want to just fair over because that will and can exacerbate the problem especially if it's crevice corrosion.

Having done keel re-sets I don't get warm fuzzy feelings seeing rust colored stains emanating from the keel joint..

I added some arrows to the discoloration I have concerns about..

Crevice corroded keel bolts:

[Delirious]

My Catalina never smiled. Well, maybe a slight Mona Lisa smirk. ;-) Neither did my Pearson.

Don't think it's limited to Catalinas. I've seen "smiles" on Tartans, C&C's, Newports, older Hunters . . . one Sabre we looked at was practically laughing out loud. At least it's a real keel and not heavy junk poured into a hollow fiberglass keel and cemented in place. Anything with a bolted on keel can flex a bit from mating dissimilar materials of lead and fibreglass. The important thing is that it is not allowing water to the keelbolts. You can route it out and fair it with F27 or another good filler if the appearance bothers you.

29 years and you're worried because she's developed laugh-line? Normal wear & tear. If you know anyone with a moisture meter you can let it sit on the hard a month and check the area above the lead keel.