ZRC cold galvanizing for swing keel?

Status
Not open for further replies.
J

John Perry

We are going to refurbish our swing keel sometime in the near future and I am wondering about cold galvanizing it with Z.R.C. (see related link) or maybe even Hot-dipped galvanizing. My understanding is that galvanizing works best without a top coat, which, it seems, would mean we couldn't fill and fair the keel. Or, we could fair it and go ahead and top coat it and just compromise a little on the protectivness of the galvanizing. Overkill? Anybody here have any experience with ZRC? And how much does fairing the keel affect performance vs. just leaving it rough and galvanized? Appreciate your thoughts, thanks. John
 
J

john renfro

keel

hello john, i know nothing about galvanizing so no opinion. but as far as the keel refurbishing goes, it weighs 600 lbs. and on some of the keels, i think the foundry didn't have the metal hot enough and it cooled to fast, trapping air bubbles near the leading edges, and, when machined down, opened these bubles leaving a " swiss cheese " looking surface and on my keel, what looked like a six inch long eroded section at the lower leading edge that would have looked realy bad if not filled and faired. john
 
C

Charlie on "Kestrel"

keel

John, When I refinishedmy keel due to a very much oversized and oblong pivot pin hole, I first had the keel sandblasted clean, a new ss bushing pressed and welded in place at a local machine shop. They had the machinery to assure the pivot hole was suare and true to the keel centerline. They also filled with weld some of the swiss cheese type voids in the surface and the long groove from the PO who never released the lock down bolt. I then coated with permatex rust preventer, Interlux fairing compound and shaped the keel as best I could to conform to an airfoil shape based on a template supplied with a keel repair video from Catalina Direct. I then coated with epoxy barrier and bottom paint. The main reson for fairing the keel shape I think is to keep the boat pointing on the same centerline for both port and starboard tacks. Its a lot of work, but I don't see any differance now on either pointing angle. Good luck Charlie
 
Status
Not open for further replies.