Keel repair - PICS

[zuzullo]

I just bought my first sailboat. Took it out of the water and found this big hole on the keel.

I am a newbie on this world but I am good with my hands.
How bad does it looks? Can I fix it on my own or do I need some professional to do it?

What would be the procedure?

[dabnis]

Looks like it will take a little more than some Bondo to fix it. It appears
to be an encapsulated keel? What kind of boat, etc. A sailnet search
will probably bring up numerous posts on this subject or some of the
fiberglass experts can advise you. Looks like the leading edge of the
keel has been split open(de-laminated)? Looks serious, like it took a
pretty severe impact. You might want to do a very detailed inspection
of the inside of the hull looking for stress cracks, de-lamination of
bulkhead tabbing and so on. Best of luck,

Dabnis

[dabnis]

Just saw some links below under "Similar Threads", better than the
search results.

Dabnis

[JimsCAL]

Sounds like you bought a boat without hauling it and having a survey done. If you had done so, this would have been caught. Yes it looks like an encapuslated keel that has been hit hard. If the ballast is lead you may get lucky. If iron, you could have a major problem on your hands. As dabnis suggests, you need to do a thorough inspection of the structure to see if there is other damage. As a minimum, this is going to require some fiberglass work. At the worst --- I don't want to think about it.

[CalebD]

Comments above are spot on. If you had the boat surveyed in the water this might not have been picked up. It costs a couple hundred more to haul out for an inspection. Chances are you did not have it surveyed but will likely need a survey to get insurance (depending on where you are).
If you are new to the world of fiberglass this is a great place to start learning about it: How To Use
You are going to have to grind back the edges of that crack/hole until you get solid laminate all around. Taper the grinding 1:10 or so. An angle grinder with a sanding disk will do the job quickly as would a belt sander. Once the crack is widened you should inspect in there to see if you see rust - a sign that you have an iron ballast as lead does not rust per se.
You will need some pretty heavy glass cloth to then cover up this flaw.
It is not as difficult as it might sound but it can be a bit messy as you learn to work with this 'stuff'.

[jbrockpiano]

Well, first off plan on being on the hard until you can dry this wound out completely. I wounded the front edge of my encapsulated keel and it wept water for several weeks. Determine if your keel is lead or Iron. Iron will be dripping rust. Lead not so much. Be sure you get all the water out before you seal this thing up or you will get a wound that never heals. Or a vagina in boating terms.

Good luck

[scottyt]

Before we go further what kind of boat is it? It almost looks like it is a swing keel boat with the swing keel opening glassed over.

it does look bad, but there are somethings that will make it not so bad.... lead keel, swing keel that was removed, etc. first thing you need to do is get some boat info, second cut it open more to see how far the damage goes ad to help it dry.

[SlowButSteady]

Zuzullo,
You indicated in another thread that the boat is a Tur 80. I googled "Tur 80" and found a web page in swedish for the boat. Apparently it has iron ballast. If you look closely at the first pic in the original post, the seam between the two halves of the hull seems to be spreading. My guess is that this is because the iron of the keel is corroding and forcing the halves apart. If that is indeed what is happening it's not only very bad news (as it will make the repair that much more difficult), but it also indicates that the damage has been there for some time.

Deplacement: 2,2 ton
Långköl (järn): 0,9 ton

Displacement: 2.2 (metric?) tons
Long Keel (Iron): 0.9 tons

Apparently, it's a late '60's or early '70's design.

[TQA]

Read this CLICKY

Buy West System 105 205 and 406.

Get keel dry NOTE THIS IS ESSENTIAL! If you have a hole weeping water stop it with MarineTex.

Mix resin, paint a coat on to damaged area, now add filler to remaining resin till consistency of peanut butter and butter it on.

Sand and go sailing.

See what it looks like next year.

Oh yeah don't obsess about what might have been, you have an old boat and it has problems. Some require a serious fix but IMHO this problem needs a quick filler job and she is good to go for a year. Yes the keel MIGHT be corroding and expanding etc etc but I have never heard of an encapsulated keel falling off!

[SlowButSteady]

I would go to these guys, rather than West System. You'll save a substantial amount on the epoxy and probably get a better product.