Blisters on my Keel

[twofoot]

I have a 2008 Beneteau 373, I have sailed her in Lake Erie for three seasons. On our haul out day we discovered the keel is blistering. From my perspective, this is due to initial misapplication by Beneteau.

I have requested from Beneteau that the keel be properly repaired and the reapplication of epoxy. From what I have been reading on the Beneteau Forums, this seems to be a prevalent problem with Beneteau keels.

I don’t want to delay my launch date, worse case scenario, could I just grind down the biggest blisters and paint over them for one season?

 

[Ron20324]

WHAT IS IT THAT IS ACTUALLY BLISTERING? THE BOTTOM PAINT, THE GEL COAT, THE FIBERGLASS LAMINATION?

In my experience, it is your dealer that put on any barrier coat and bottom paint.

 

[gord331victoria]

I just fixed a ding in my keel, and I had 4 or 5 small rusty blisters. This is the best qiuck fix method. Fix in the morning, painting your bottom in the afternoon. The other methods to build up epoxy barriers require many days and may coats of interprotect. As I understand these Bene keels are coated at the factory with an epoxy based barrier coat, so it is best to stay with an epoxy solution.

http://westsystem.com/ss/repairing-individual-and-early-stage-gelcoat-blisters/

Bene uses cast iron because it has greater tensile strength, and less impact on the environment. And they can cast thinner, more efficient keel shapes as a result. They only downside is that you must be dilligent to repair the rust spots on haul out every other year or so.


Gord

 

[Gunni]

It wouldn't work in salt, don't know about sweetwater. Grind em down, making sure your are well into shiny metal all around and as deep as it goes, paint with epoxy barrier coat and bottom paint the same day. Put the epoxy on the metal immediately or the rust will come back.

 

[twofoot]

Thank you very much