Advice on gelcoat delamination on keel

[Razzler]

Hi All, I just acquired at 1984 Catalina 27 and am going through and updating systems. I scraped the hull and came across what looks like complete loss of gelcoat in a couple spots on the keel (see pic). I also found a crack on the keel as well (pic). The gelcoat looks great everywhere else on the boat.

I'm a novice to fiberglass work. Can you please confirm that these areas are delaminanated fiberglass? Since this is on the hull, do you think I could get away with putting some primer on these spots (or doing nothing) and fixing them in the fall when the boat comes back out of the water? My thought is that since these problems are on the keel, there aren't bulkheads or other wood to get rotten if I wait a bit longer to fix. Is that bad logic? Our marina has a quick deadline for getting boats off the hard, and I'm not sure I'll have time to fix before then.

Thanks for any advice you have.

 

[Art12050]

I had the same problem on my 1992 Hunter 30 a number of years back. The fiberglass on the keel kept lifting and splitting. I decided to strip the keel removing all the fiberglas and give it a wire brushing to get down to the cast iron. Then I put a couple of coats of Interlux Primocon and bottom painted over it.
That was around 18 years ago. I re-prime and bottom paint every year and haven’t had any issue.
Regarding the crack, I raked mine out and used 3M 5200, then bottomed painted over it. You may have to redo this every few years.

 

[dmax]

Catalinas don't have gelcoat/fiberglass over their keels, just plain lead (alloy). It looks like maybe a barrier coat was applied over the lead (recommended) or there's a lot of paint and it is now failing. To fix correctly, you want to strip the keel down to the lead and apply an epoxy barrier coat while the lead is still shiny. For this season, you could scrape off all the loose stuff, get the exposed lead shiny and bottom paint it immediately. Ideally, you would apply an epoxy coat to the bare spots but the paint alone should last the season. As far as the crack is concerned, very common on Catalinas and other boats, yours doesn't look too bad - search the forum for "catalina smile", there are lots of threads on how to repair.

 

[rgranger]

Easy off oven cleaner will break down the bonds in paint. Spray it on … let it dry a day or two … and pressure wash off the paint.
To be environmentally proper, lay an old sheet under first. It will filter the water and catch all the paint flakes.

your paint looks so thick it may take more than one application.

 

[Razzler]

Hi All, Thanks so much for your insight. These are all super appreciated and I'm feeling a lot more confident on next steps. Cheers!

 

[capt.amory]

well done. forum