Keel repair
- Thread starter Moondance
- Start date
Here are the pictures of my damaged keel I need to fix. I ha ya 1982 Catalina 22.
Please advise.
Thanks
Please advise.
Thanks
Attachments
The repair will most likely involve sanding away the bottom paint and rust. Then re-applying appropriate coatings to reduce rust in the future. You will need probably to remove the keel to do a full repair. I'm sure others with more experience with C22's and steel keels will chime in with the details.
What year is your boat? Your keel is in very sad shape. My approach would be to try and find a used or donor keel as the one you have will be an extensive repair. You have lots of cracks, splits and flaking. If you can't find a donor I would remove it, take it and have it soda blasted even deep into the cracks and nooks. Then solvent wash it fill all voids with a slurry of epoxy, sand it fair, use an epoxy barrier coat, bottom paint and re-install. That is the short story. Your front or leading edge is in very sad condition but salvageable. I would recommend MAS epoxy and some of the voids are extensive and it will take a large fill and there will be less heat build up with MAS and it's slowest hardener.
Thanks for the information, I hope to do what you suggest without removing the keel, wow, I didn’t know I had that much of a problem. Anyone have a Catalina 22 keel they want to get rid of or for sale?
If you scratch a car, rust will form on/around the scratch before the rest of the body. Only doing part of the keel is like leaving a large gouge untreated. I suspect it'll end up being a lot of time and money wasted by only doing part of the keel. Your boat is small enough to be fork lifted so marina rates are lower than you might expect. There's also some C22 specific methods of lifting such as utilizing the gudgeons. I'd personally look into scaffolding and chain hoists. Search for the C22 association's website. I'm sure you'll find a wealth of knowledge
That seems rather aggressive. It looks like a little grinding to remove the rust and even just some marinetex epoxy and apply some paint, especially if it's on the trailer most of the time.
And unless it's going to stay in the water all season and the pin hole is out of round and needs attention it's probably not a huge issue
Captcoho, I took each photo and blew them up pretty large and went over them more than just casually. While I understand what you are saying after close examination I think anything else will not last a very long time and is a substandard repair. Just a little grinding will not remove all of the lose particles nor do I believe it will remove all of the rust as there is rust deeply embedded that will leave a seed for the next cycle. While I like Marine-Tex and do use it, in this case it is not the right product as it is too thick and will not penetrate into all of the little nooks and crannies. The keel rest area that is damaged is pretty straightforward but the leading edge and I have seen this on dozens of boats of all sizes and designs, cutting corners in this area will fail again. I have seen many that owners tried a quick sand and seal and they never work. It does not really take that much more to make the proper repair.