H34 keel smile

[cdells]

Hello everyone,
Just wanted to get some thoughts on what I need to do with this keel. The boat has been on the hard for about two years. Is this gap excessive? It was filled in with what was probably 5200 but I wanted to see what him joint looked like. Also, I am assuming I need to take the entire keel down to metal now? Thanks in advance!
SF
Chris

 

[shemandr]

Oy. That's not a smile. It's a shark mouth. Yeah, keel off the boat, taken down to clean metal and redone. First try to determine if the keel still fits the the bottom (Hint: The keel hasn't changed).

 

[kloudie1]

Not that unusual for the 34 (and the 31 from that era). The keel is attached by tabs on either side and not centerline bolts like most keels.
The forward area is mostly fairing compound which chips off over the years.. you can effectively fix this by cleaning the forward end and sides of the joint then torquing the keel bolts then re-fairing the gaps with a thickened semi flex epoxy like G-Flex. I see cracks on the keel tab as well where it meets the hull. The key is to clean the cracks as best you can then torque the bolts to seat the keel then fair the joints, that way you don't crack the new fairing. Yes, it does look like the keel should be taken down to bare metal and primed with something like coal tar epoxy before the bottom paint goes on.

 

[rgranger]

You're gonna need a bigger boat!

 

[cdells]

Thanks for the responses guys!
Kloudie, do I put G Flex in the gaps then torque down on the keel bolts? Is there a recommended torque? Copy on the bare metal…I was afraid of that

I’ll send more pictures as I progress through the project!

 

[cdells]

I got some work done today. I used a stripper to get off as much paint as I could then went to town with a wire wheel. You can really see the tabbing points that Kloudie was talking about. I also checked the keel bolts to 160 NM..they didn’t budge.

 

[cdells]

Uncovered the most forward tabs completely now. It looks like they were just covered with thickened epoxy. I will clean out the joints then reseal with Total Boat flexible epoxy.

 

[kloudie1]

Torque first then epoxy/fairing.. That way, the keel gets set first and will not crack the fairing when the torque squeezes keel to boat. If desired, you could work some epoxy into the gap before torque but the torque should be applied before the epoxy is set, then more epoxy/fairing after the bolts are tightened.