Advice requested: launch H23 with bare iron keel?

[isaksp00]

I bought mine ('91 H23) about 2 months ago. Boat had not been used for two years, on trailer. So I'm cleaning up and restoring things - teak trim, rudder dings, etc.

The iron keel was pretty scaly with rust and peeling paint and what looks like some fairing compound. My intent in the end is to coat it with POR 15, then do some fairing with West epoxy and the light filler, then maybe another coat of POR or else Interlux Interprotect 2 part barrier coat (mainly because I already bought some, and it is white).

I wire brushed and ground pretty much all the scale off, with a pretty robust wire brush and grinder wheel on an angle grinder. Not too good for the back! So it is more or less bare metal now, with some pitting where there's still a bit of rust.

In order to not delay sailing even more this summer, I am thinking of launching her without the coating work - that is, the bare keel as is. The boat will be only in a fresh water lake, and one that allows no shore power to boot.

I wonder if the keel will pit and scale a lot more, or just get a light layer of powdery rust over the next few months, in the water. I don't mind having to re-do some light wire brushing to clean a thin layer of soft rust after haulout, but if it is likely to really scale up, best to fully coat it now.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks!

 

[Steve Dion]

Check out the Interlux/Yacht Paint site for directions on this process.

I think you will find that the keel need to be down to "bright" metal and then epoxied. If you have the abiility to use a sand blaster that is probably the best way to do it and do it quickly.

 

[s sauer]

Seems like you would have wasted all your work this far if you don't coat the metal before launch. Your intended primer and barrier coats seem correct, but putting bare metal back in the water just starts the rust all over again.

 

[DianaOfBurlington]

Primocon

It will pit and scale a lot more. Leave it in too long this season and you might be looking for a new iron keel. That said, I understand semiprecious metals have been down recently because of the market. You might get a good deal on one.

By contrast, Primocon is about $30 a quart. Two quarts should do two coats; that work should take 2 or 3 evenings.

 

[RobertG-NJ]

Definitely protect it, but not just any old paint, and definitely not antifouling as it has copper in it. I bought a H23 at the end of 2008 and just got done refinishing the keel of the really badly corroded iron keel so I know what you are facing. I also agree with your initial plan. I prepared it to bare metal by chiseling about 1/4 inch of scale and then endless grinding to bare metal, I then painted immediately with Rustlok and then epoxy and then faired it with a goodly amount of West epoxy & #407 filler, then a final barrier coat (I used Petit Protect but Interprotect is good) just as you intend to. Do it and not let your work go to waste and have to redo it. Its a big job on your back and I do not want to do again.

Yours may not be so bad, and if it was and will be in fresh water but mine was in terrible condition, not just powdery or surface rust, as it was and will be in salt water at the NJ shore.

One thing to be sure of as Steve notes and I concur, be sure it is bright bare metal. If you used a wire brush, you could be just polishing the scale. I noticed that when I first was cleaning the surface up. But it wasnt good metal. I started grinding it but found I could chisel flakes off easier. I then used a chisel to get off layers of badly corroded iron compound. Also, even when it seemed after grinding you were clean, little brown spots betrayed where there were little caverns of powdery brown rust when I ground further. I looked cratered when I finished and took a great deal of fairing compound, but I wanted to do it right ONCE. I still agonize if I should have used a phosphor paint first instead of the Rustlok, or perhaps a galvanizing paint, but I am hoping the epoxy and the barrier coat (layed on thick) does its job and am hoping for the best.

BTW Diana, are you at the Curtin Marina in Burlington? I live in Westampton.

 

[isaksp00]

Well, due to other delays (like a nonfunctioning outboard - no spark) I bit the bullet and sealed it. As far as I could tell, all the loose flaky gobs of scale and paint were removed by the wire brush and grinding. I used a pretty heavy duty brush wheel on an 11,000RPM angle grinder, not the measly wire brush that goes on a drill. The surface seemed pretty solid, even if it had a very thin layer of rust in places.

I used the POR15 cleaner and their Metal Ready etcher, and did two coats of their grey POR15 paint (it is probably not really "paint"). Seemed to work well, and they claim that the coating likes rust - that is, it will bind well to the underlying metal if there is a light coating of rust. I'll worry about sanding and fairing with the West epoxy next year, and will see how the POR15 holds up. Of course, the bottom edge of the keel and much of the lower wing surface are untreated, as the trailer's support board blocks them.