damaged keel

[rpar]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for someone with Ericson experience...Have a 32' with a fin keel. Four years ago grounded hard and did some damage. Repairs not quite accomplished
and I would like to know if someone has a diagram or information to obtain one that will show how the keel for this boat is constructed, molded to the hull or bolted in some
fashion that has connection with the bilge. I'm getting water (still) from a breach in the
keel and pulling the bilge pump from the floor of the bilge allows water to flow into
the bilge form the keel. I cannot figure the construction of this setup, and need to
address this problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[FastOlson]

Q & A

Just to be clear, is your E-32 a 70's Mk 2 or an 80's Mk 3?

I ask because the earlier model had internal ballast and the later model has an external lead keel. Repairs would be different depending on which one you have. For a Mk 2, you would need to repair the hull where the damage occurred.

For construction info and contact with some of the many other E-32 owners on-line, ask your questions at the owners' site at www.ericsonyachts.org.

Regards,
Loren
(an EY.org moderator)

 

[Ol Dave]

Ericson keel damage

Does it look like THIS when it's out of the water? Delamination of the encapsulated keel it a common problem with these boats.

 

[BobM]

It's a Mark II according to his info.

The downside to an encapsulated keel is that if you hit something you darn well better pull the boat and fix it, if necessary.

I picked up a scratch on mine that just penetrated the gel coat and I made sure I fixed it before I launched last year.

You need to fix the boat properly ASAP. Was your insurance company involved in the grounding?

BobM

 

[MitchM]

some boats of this era (example: catalinas) had an external lead keel that was through bolted with keel bolts into the bottom of the hull.. on such boats, a grounding of the forward edge of the keel keel, may have caused the keelboats to have been pulled loose. some boats of that era had galvanized keelbolts sunk into lead keels. then a top layer of epoxy was poured on the top of the keelbolts . the top layer of epoxy formed the bottom of the bilge. so when a keelbolt fails --either due to impact loading from the collision, or pure old age due to bolt corrosion - water will enter into the bilge through the keelbolt. a keel bolt failure which is allowing h 2 0 into the bilge is a serious problem. can you haul the boat immediately and get a professional's opinion ? even if the collision was 4 yrs ago, it may be covered by your insurance...since the damage was ' hidden' and not recognised until the leaks started. pulling all the keelbolts and repairing the damage by isntalling new bolts and reglasssing the keel and bilge area is not a job for the inexperienced..