1997 Hunter 336 crack in bottom of my hold
- Thread starter clapres
- Start date
The previous owner installed this to drain the keel with a shopvac in case there was water.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 23,352
Good intentions, not a feasible solution. If there is water in the keel it will be at the bottom. Impossible to get a shop vac hose down close enough to the water to suck it out. Seal it and do not let water enter your keel from your bilge.
The cracks look like poorly installed gelcoat to cover up the area of the of the installed drain.
If it was my boat, I would remove all of the gelcoat. Remove the garboard drain and hole into the keel. Properly patch the hole and area with epoxy and fiberglass if needed. Once repaired, Clean the surface completely with acetone and then paint the area.
Clean the area of all paint on the keel bolts, as you may need to access them in the future.
I also would inspect the keel for any damage. It is possible the boat had a grounding or was set down hard on the keel when place on the hard, that may have caused the cracking.
How do you check the torque on your keel bolts with all that coating on them?
It doesn't look like gel coat to me since you can see the glass matt. it looks like there is a layer of glass laid down in the bottom of the bilge that is cracking off. It really looks like this is a previous repair that is not holding up well.
What does the garboard (turn of the hull to keel) look like on the outside of the hull?
It doesn't look like gel coat to me since you can see the glass matt. it looks like there is a layer of glass laid down in the bottom of the bilge that is cracking off. It really looks like this is a previous repair that is not holding up well.
What does the garboard (turn of the hull to keel) look like on the outside of the hull?
Like others have suggested I don’t think the previous owner did you any favors. The coating on the keel bolts should go, and the garboard plug into the top of the keel won’t do any good. My question is what was going on that the PO was trying to fix in the first place. Was water coming in through the keel bolts? Was the area already cracking before the repairs? I think you’ll need to start by cleaning up the repairs, then inspecting the outside of the keel hull joint to see if it looks solid. I’d also tap the sump for any indication of delamination there.
Still trying to understand that garboard plug…how deep is the void under there? Is there any? Assuming a bolted-on keel (which I assume a ‘97 Hunter has), there really shouldn’t be a void under there.
What does the keel joint (assuming it is not an encapsulted keel) look like? Any cracks in the joint?
It does look like gel coat in the bilge…and if that is all that is cracked, not too much of a worry…but you may need to grind that out a little to verify (also why I asked about the keel joint on the outside).
Greg
What does the keel joint (assuming it is not an encapsulted keel) look like? Any cracks in the joint?
It does look like gel coat in the bilge…and if that is all that is cracked, not too much of a worry…but you may need to grind that out a little to verify (also why I asked about the keel joint on the outside).
Greg
No space between fiberglass and the keel. (see picture)
No cracks outside. The keel is encapsuled. See picture took last summer.
I'm going to remove the antifouling on the keel in May (or when it's warmer) to make sure there are no cracks.
I'm going to plug the holes in the hold and make sure the water can't escape from the hold.
I think it is the best to do.
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If you have keel bolts the keel is probably not encapsulated.
The cracks I saw in the photos look like tabbing that failed - probably from a grounding. If the boat had a grounding that caused the tabbing around the keel box to fail, then you need to look at the tabbing around all the bulkheads. Doors not closing? Maybe related. The keel is probably well sealed from water intrusion due to the sealants. But that doesn't mean all is kosher.
The cracks I saw in the photos look like tabbing that failed - probably from a grounding. If the boat had a grounding that caused the tabbing around the keel box to fail, then you need to look at the tabbing around all the bulkheads. Doors not closing? Maybe related. The keel is probably well sealed from water intrusion due to the sealants. But that doesn't mean all is kosher.
Usually encapsulated means the keel is an integral part of the hull - all from the same mold, with ballast just placed inside. What you have is a keel of iron or lead ballast bolted onto your hull. It might be coated in barrier coat or epoxy of some sort, but that’s a coating, not really encapsulation by the hull.
Keels are either hanging by bolts from the hull or enclosed inside the fiberglass hull. You have an external keel that is why the garboard drain plug is curious, there is no where for water to drain. Typically the garboard plugs are on the side of the keel sump at the lowest point, this allows any water that enters the boat while on the hard to drain out of the boat.
As @shemandr mentioned, the crack along the side of the hull looks like failed tabbing, except there should not be any tabbing in the keel sump. There also appears to be additional glass laid up on top of the factory lay up. It is as if someone tried to repair some damage to the keel sump. My experience has been that the final exposed layer of glass spans the entire keel sump and not smaller pieces of glass.
A poorly executed repair may also explain all the gelcoat in the sump. All it does is hide any repairs to the hull.
Did you have the boat surveyed before you purchased it? This seems like the kind of thing a good surveyor would catch and inform you about.