Hunter 340 keel crack

[Stevesail]

Returning from a 5 month cruise up and down the intercoastal from Tampa to D.C. and back, the Coast Guard stoped us and provided a routine inspection. They found that there is a line (crack) 75% on one side and 25% on the other. I've since found out that the "bolt-on-keel" sometimes does that.
#1. Is it serious?
#2. Is it common?
#3. Any recommendations?
It does not seem to be leaking into the bilge. I'm ready to do a bottom job on her. Any experiences with this problem would be welcomed.

 

[Paul Snieckus]

Hmmm...no experience on an inside crack Steve but I am in process of a bottom job that revealed a crack at on the stern side of the keel. If you are doing the bottom blast like I just did then more will be revealed and you will have more info on the repair needed. My repair is just glass work. Hopefully you don't have a keel structure issue.

 

[Jackdaw]

How did the coasties find this? During a routine on-the-water inspection??

 

[Stevesail]

How did the coasties find this? During a routine on-the-water inspection??

Yes, with a submersible. I've dove the boat and have seen it. It's a very small line. The two different approaches are #1. too clean the crack area and fill it with an epoxy. maybe even putting a band of Kevlar around it and epoxying it. #2. put the boat on the hard and torque the keel bolts (much more expensive and I understand the torque values are really HIGH)

 

[robertsapp]

At the factory, the top of the keel is covered in bedding compound and the boat is set on top of it and bolted tight. Then they apply some fairing compound to the joint and sand it smooth. You've got a couple of tons of lead swinging around on the bottom of a plastic (fiberglass) stub, and so they move a little in relation to each other as the boat heels or the temperature changes. Fairing compound is brittle, so it cracks. If you don't get a lot of water oozing out of the joint when you haul the boat, and/or you're not getting weepage past the keel bolts into the bilge, it's probably just cosmetic and it's up to you whether it bothers you enough to "fix." If so, you can just apply some more fairing compound, sand and paint, but it will probably crack again sometime in the future. If it really bothers you, you can glass over the joint with fabric and epoxy, fair and paint, and it will probably stay sealed unless you have a hard grounding. It also wouldn't hurt to ask the yard to re-torque the keel bolts.

If when you haul the boat you have water oozing out of the joint for several days or weeks, or you have water seeping into the bildge, it means your keel bolts are getting wet, which means they're sitting in a highly corrosive environment (oxygen depleted water). You'd then need to drop the keel and rebed it.

 

[Bill19233]

I had my 340 out of the water for bottom paint a week ago, saw the same type of crack, barely visible. no weeping. It was on the aft end, about 25% on starboard, 50% on port. I asked the yard owner if I needed to torque the keel bolts or redo the sealant, he said no. I was concerned, he could have made more money from me, but he convinced me I had nothing to worry about after showing me the cracks on other boats in the yard, And the crack was not there two years ago at the last haul out.