Hull Keel Joint

[dbruce85]

Last season, motoring in a channel trying to avoid a gaggle of junior sailors in a class, I drifted a bit to far to starboard and ran aground.

I was doing 1 knot or less and just slowely stopped in sand, no sudden stop or thud.

A few minutes later I threw a line to a passing boat who towed me out, my boat pivoted about 45 degrees on the keel til straight.

It looked to be enough flexing to cause the cracks at the keel joint, I had had none each season I had hauled out before.

I was just going to grind away a bit and fair with a epoxy faring compound.

Is it just that simple or am I missing something.

Thanks,

David

[tommays]

Is that the trailing edge ?

The Rust looking stuff is a bit of a concern

[sailingfool]

I'd use a epoxy/collodial silica paste, fair it as smooth as you can as it's a bear to sand.

PS - I assume this is a solid glass hull, and there was no material weeping from this crack after haulout. If so, be glad you bought a boat with a solid hull...

[dbruce85]

It is the trailing edge, although there is a small but similar crack at the leading edge.

The keel is cast iron, so I assume that is where the rust is from.

The bilge was bone dry all season and at hall out.

The hull is solid glass.

[Gene T]

It may not be a problem but you really won' t know until you grind it out and see what is going on. I question the amount of flair. There should be a transition where you can put a seam of 5200.

Gene

[sailingdog]

It looks like there's a parallel stress crack in the gelcoat in the second photo. I'd think you'd want to at least look at the laminate there, rather than just fairing over it. The impact may have been more damaging than you think. You're seeing a crack in the gelcoat that is WIDE ENOUGH so that you're seeing light come through the fiberglass, and it doesn't look to be the normal separation that occurs at a hull-keel joint.

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by dbruce85

The hull is solid glass.

Unfortunately your hull is not solid glass at the keel to hull joint. It is thin glass/plywood/thin glass. You want to be very careful to not let that wood get wet as it is a big part of what is holding your keel on..

[davidpm]

What is this black stuff?

I'm really suspicious because of your story. If you really touched bottom in sand at 1 knot and it supposedly causes something that looks anything like your picture the first thought is what happened before you bought the boat. Maybe prior repair not done properly or rotted plywood in stub.

The link above was from a Catalina 27, similar situation light grounding, and after grinding I found a layer of soft black goop embedded in the the layup.

I would expect that something is not right as that light touch should not have caused any problem at all.

[brob76]

I also own a P26 and the "crack" in the keel/hull joint is very normal for this boat. I have it every year at haulout. Quite surprised you've never seen it before. What you need to do is torque your keel bolts every season and just fair over the crack. Just did the same to my boat yesterday. Check out Dan Pfeiffer's description of the keel/hull joint. If you haven't been on his site, it has a wealth of info on the P26. Top of the keel