What is this and should I be worried? Keel Question

[krozet]

Hello;

I bought a new boat and was able to spend a few hours on board snapping pictures (about 600) to plan out my repair schedule. In my travels I found this.



This is a look from aft looking forward, on the port side I have opened up a bench and found this...



Under the teak sole beside the bench I found this...



The port side, under the bench seems to have a coat of paint on top of it and the section under the sole has nothing on top of it. This is the top of the keel sitting almost in the exact middle of the boat. Aft of the top of the keel is the bilge and forward of these pictures I could not get at.

Why would there be cracks here? The boat has been on the hard for a few years, could it just be temperature changes or perhaps a little water getting in and freezing?

Either way they seem to be cosmetic as with a ruler I found the cracks are barely 3mm deep.

Here is the Keel from outside the boat...



So how do you fix something like this?

[deniseO30]

it looks like and "encapsulated" keel and a little weeping down low on the port side just above the bulb. is it cement or iron? looks like cement in the pics. standing water freezing/thawing over the years will break cement like it's plaster.

[krozet]

Originally Posted by deniseO30

it looks like and "encapsulated" keel and a little weeping down low on the port side just above the bulb. is it cement or iron? looks like cement in the pics. standing water freezing/thawing over the years will break cement like it's plaster.

Keel is Iron according to the manufacturer and it is flaking off at the top like it is oxidizing, not crumbling like cement.

How would I test for weeping and how would I fix it?

[Stillraining]

I think you hit the nail on the head...Your encapsulated Iron keel is doing what most encapsulated Iron keels do..swell and spall as they rust toward the oxygen rich side. I'm sure you are fine...grind off the cover layers of glass and get down to the dirty work of grinding and vacuuming out and drying out all that rusted iron till you are down to solid metal.
Then treat with a rust converter and then a rust encapsulator..then epoxy back in your structural cloth ( if any) cover layer of mat or whatever to original thickness or better.

If there is no visual indication of cracking/bulging or audible delamination sounding areas when taped with a hammer on the exterior of the hull in the keel area there is no structural concerns IMHO

PS: WoW! 600 pictures..what a maniac..

[brak]

Dick Zaal is the designer of that boat (Contest 33). Here is what I have from him an an email back 5 years ago or so:

The keel is a fibre glass moulding and can be seen as part of the hull.
The ballast are lumps of lead filled up with small steel particulars and resin.
There are no keel bolts.

I have a drawing of the keel design, but the image is too big to attach. Essentially keel is molded separately and hull is overlaid on it with an overlap.

[Stillraining]

OH ...By the way ...Congradulations !!

[krozet]

Originally Posted by brak

Dick Zaal is the designer of that boat (Contest 33). Here is what I have from him an an email back 5 years ago or so:



I have a drawing of the keel design, but the image is too big to attach. Essentially keel is molded separately and hull is overlaid on it with an overlap.

You know I looked for the keel bolts for almost an hour and couldn't find any... I was going to ask where I might have missed them but didn't want to look too silly.

[krozet]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

PS: WoW! 600 pictures..what a maniac..

All the pictures are in JPeg and RAW format. I did it so that I have a detailed record of the entire boat. Since I am in Canada and the boat is 10 hours away for the winter I wanted to have a way to plan out what I wanted to do over the next three visits too get the boat ready for launch. I started with a set below decks before I touched anything, then took out the sole and got pictures of everything. Pictures of all hatches, windows, hardware pieces, multiple pictures of all mechanical systems. Then a whole set on deck, of all the rigging... Then off the boat for a set around the boat at all angles.

I can now plan out what I need to do as the basics to get the boat launched and plan out the cosmetics as well.

Maybe I am just odd.

Robert

[Bene505]

Not odd at all. That's a fine way to do it.

You can get lost in that many images. To help, you could also add some video, for when you want to take a quick look at something without searching through all the pictures to find it. Pan the camera as you take the video and it will help "put it all together".

If you took the pictures in a very methodical way (e.g. bow to stern port side, then bow to stern starboad side), then that will also do the trick, IMHO.