Durable Bottom Paint

[rgranger]

Haha, trying to steal my 15 seconds of fame huh? What is that off of? the shape is significantly different than mine. All these keels you do, you must be a man of patience. This is some serious work with some serious hours involved.

I did use Fred's design for a keel cradle... but those are two different keels in the photos.... the first set is off of a Balboa, the second is off of Fred's boat ... a Mac 25. I said a Catalina 25 initially... my bad

Thanks Fred!

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

With cast iron keels, you do have to clean off any impurities like rust going to bare metal. Fill in voids with a two part epoxy and then spray a metal primer which is zinc oxide but comes in many names or as an additive. The key to prime the metal which has zinc oxide in it.

 

[Brian S]

Based on the experience of a FL sailor I know, if you put anything on the bare metal (or as bare as you can get the average cast iron) other than appropriate primer (iron phosphate, or Crazy Dave's zinc oxide,) water will find a way under. He did it this way first time - I mean he faired first, then primed or phosphated, and he found that the areas that had epoxy fairing material are where it rusted and scaled, but areas which were bare after fairing and thus received the phosphate, did not rust. That is why phosphate first, then epoxy barrier coat, then fairing would be recommended.