Hi everyone, I've not been active in sailing for the last five years or so. I lost my free mooring for my for my 1977 Oday 25 (fin keel)and life got busy with other projects, so I purchased a trailer and stored it at my parents house. It has been stored on the trailer since April of 2005, in the dry underneath an RV shelter.
Recently, I have started to think about sailing again and have been plotting to restore the boat and get it back in the water. A couple weeks ago, I went to check on the boat and make plans to bring it to my house (about a two hour trip). When I got to the boat, I was immediately confronted with a keel issue that was not evident the last time I inspected the boat (late summer/early fall of 2009). Two things have happened. First, there is now a gap between the fiberglass stub and the top of the keel. It measures 1/8" at the leading edge and 1/16" and the trailing edge. There does not appear to be any damage to the bottom of the stub, and neither does anything appear amiss in the bilge with the keel bolts (they look to be SS, with double washers, bedded in 5200). The trailer keel pad has deflected under the weight of the keel, but the hull is well supported by the trailer bunks.
More alarmingly, the keel immediately below the stub has the appearance of particle board that has gotten wet and expanded out. This is mostly just below the keel/stub joint.
I was of the understanding that my keel was entirely made of lead, but there seems to be some other material under a thin layer of lead, at least at the top of the cast keel. It looks, and feels, like very hard clay. This brick red material appears to be what has expanded and pushed the lead out. I recently have read about Catalina using a lead saturated brick for their keels, is this something Oday has done as well?
My first thought was that somehow water had gotten in the boat and had leaked down through the stub, and then had frozen during the recent cold snap (the boat is near Charlotte, NC). However, the bilge is bone dry and does not show any signs of moisture.
The missing chunk on the keel is from where I pried a flaked out piece loose, that is the piece shown in against the black background in the attached photos.
I'd love to hear some thoughts on what's going on here and what the best approach to dealing with it is. I have searched this forum and other, but have not found anything describing a similar situation. I'm at a lost to explain how the keel would have separated more or less uniformly from the stub. The keel bolts look to be in good shape, as does the bottom of the fiberglass stub (from top an bottom).
The damage really does look to have been caused by expansion due to freezing, but this does not make any sense to me as the boat couldn't possibly be any drier that it is after five years out of the water. I also can't figure out how the gap in the keel/stub joint relates to the flaking. Is this something that has occurred because the boat has been on the trailer for so long, or is it just the age of the boat and this would have occurred (just with more dramatic consequences) if it were still in the water?
Without hearing other opinions, I'm inclined to put pressure on the bottom of the keel with a jack and then attempt to tighten the keel bolt nuts to close the gap so that I can trailer the boat back home without the keel/stub joint moving around and damaging either piece.
Once I have it safely in my back yard, I would back off the keel bolt nuts as far as I could with out them coming off the bolts, thereby creating as much of a gap as possibly between the stub and keel - without completely detaching the keel. I would then remove all the loose, flaking keel material and determine the condition of the mating surfaces.
Hopefully, the flaking would be limited to a fairing layer and I could clean everything up, re-bed the joint and re-torque the keel bolt nuts. I could then re-fair the keel/stub joint, maybe even wrap the joint with a layer of fiberglass.
My goal is to put the boat back in the water in a nearby small lake, where I could use it more often, with less notice and planning.
I apologize for the length of this initial post. I look forward to posting happier thoughts about using my boat.
Chad Sibert
Greensboro, NC
Recently, I have started to think about sailing again and have been plotting to restore the boat and get it back in the water. A couple weeks ago, I went to check on the boat and make plans to bring it to my house (about a two hour trip). When I got to the boat, I was immediately confronted with a keel issue that was not evident the last time I inspected the boat (late summer/early fall of 2009). Two things have happened. First, there is now a gap between the fiberglass stub and the top of the keel. It measures 1/8" at the leading edge and 1/16" and the trailing edge. There does not appear to be any damage to the bottom of the stub, and neither does anything appear amiss in the bilge with the keel bolts (they look to be SS, with double washers, bedded in 5200). The trailer keel pad has deflected under the weight of the keel, but the hull is well supported by the trailer bunks.
More alarmingly, the keel immediately below the stub has the appearance of particle board that has gotten wet and expanded out. This is mostly just below the keel/stub joint.
I was of the understanding that my keel was entirely made of lead, but there seems to be some other material under a thin layer of lead, at least at the top of the cast keel. It looks, and feels, like very hard clay. This brick red material appears to be what has expanded and pushed the lead out. I recently have read about Catalina using a lead saturated brick for their keels, is this something Oday has done as well?
My first thought was that somehow water had gotten in the boat and had leaked down through the stub, and then had frozen during the recent cold snap (the boat is near Charlotte, NC). However, the bilge is bone dry and does not show any signs of moisture.
The missing chunk on the keel is from where I pried a flaked out piece loose, that is the piece shown in against the black background in the attached photos.
I'd love to hear some thoughts on what's going on here and what the best approach to dealing with it is. I have searched this forum and other, but have not found anything describing a similar situation. I'm at a lost to explain how the keel would have separated more or less uniformly from the stub. The keel bolts look to be in good shape, as does the bottom of the fiberglass stub (from top an bottom).
The damage really does look to have been caused by expansion due to freezing, but this does not make any sense to me as the boat couldn't possibly be any drier that it is after five years out of the water. I also can't figure out how the gap in the keel/stub joint relates to the flaking. Is this something that has occurred because the boat has been on the trailer for so long, or is it just the age of the boat and this would have occurred (just with more dramatic consequences) if it were still in the water?
Without hearing other opinions, I'm inclined to put pressure on the bottom of the keel with a jack and then attempt to tighten the keel bolt nuts to close the gap so that I can trailer the boat back home without the keel/stub joint moving around and damaging either piece.
Once I have it safely in my back yard, I would back off the keel bolt nuts as far as I could with out them coming off the bolts, thereby creating as much of a gap as possibly between the stub and keel - without completely detaching the keel. I would then remove all the loose, flaking keel material and determine the condition of the mating surfaces.
Hopefully, the flaking would be limited to a fairing layer and I could clean everything up, re-bed the joint and re-torque the keel bolt nuts. I could then re-fair the keel/stub joint, maybe even wrap the joint with a layer of fiberglass.
My goal is to put the boat back in the water in a nearby small lake, where I could use it more often, with less notice and planning.
I apologize for the length of this initial post. I look forward to posting happier thoughts about using my boat.
Chad Sibert
Greensboro, NC
