Iron Keel Rusting

Aug 28, 2007
127
Hunter 33.5 Northern Neck, VA
I have a Hunter 33.5 and it has been on the hard for the last 10 months and expect it to remain so for the next two years. I am currently located where there is no water :cry:. The keel is starting to show signs of rust in different places. Is there a fix for this? if so, please let me know what your experiences have been.

I have attached two shots port and starboard. The round hole you see on the starboard shot is to prevent water building up in the bilge as there is no power to the bilge pump.

Regards
 

Attachments

Dec 19, 2006
5,832
Hunter 36 Punta Gorda
Remove

I would remove all rust with wire brush on power machine until bare
metal and prime with a recommended primer until ready to splash,or have sand
blasted.
Nick
 
Aug 28, 2007
127
Hunter 33.5 Northern Neck, VA
Re: Remove

Seadaddler
What would you recommend as a primer for a keel that will be on the hard for three years?
Regards
 
Aug 28, 2007
127
Hunter 33.5 Northern Neck, VA
Steve
Do you think I should be concerned with that rust line on the starboard side?
Regards
 

Scott

.
Sep 24, 1997
242
Hunter 31_83-87 Middle River, Md
Petit Rustlock Steel Primer (#6980) works extremely well. My keel looked very similar to yours. After the first year of use, rust was reduced ~ 85-90 percent. Now I have very few small rust spots upon haulout.

Also the port side looks as though it has about ten coats of bottom paint on it. Mine looked like that when I repainted the entire bottom for the several years I owned her. You might want to consider spot painting the bottom, plenty of ablative paint already remains. It's a lot less work and you can lose alot of weight over the years by spot painting. It took me too long to figure out that one.
 
Dec 19, 2006
5,832
Hunter 36 Punta Gorda
Pettit

Pettit has a few metal primers for sure but have never had to use any and just going with what I have read here.
I would look in the search part of this forum and see what has been used with success and I think very important to get down to bare metal and have the primer ready to apply same day.
I would think on the hard would be not as bad as in salt water and try the rustlock or what ever has been recommended in this forum.
Nick
 
Dec 2, 1999
15,184
Hunter Vision-36 Rio Vista, CA.
When you get ready to paint the bottom you will probably want to clean up all the rust. You can grind off/wire brush any rust between the stub & the keel. This area needs to be sealed and re-caulked.

If you are going to leave the keel alone for now then you can use one of the Interlux products to clean and epoxy the entire keel & bottom before you apply bottom paint.

Check out http://yachtpals.com/node/951
 
Jun 8, 2004
10,460
-na -NA Anywhere USA
Regarding iron or even lead, the main thing if rust is occurring, the area has to be voided of any paint to include the epoxy going to bare metal and brushing until it is clean. A metal primer needs to be applied to keep that from happening again. The old term for the metal primer use to be zinc chromate which was the best. There are products that have that in it under different names now but I have been out of the business for a long time. After that, fill in any voids with two part epoxy and I used one that took 24 hours to cure but for the sake of it, I cannot remember the name as I found it to work well for me over the years. As for the hull, it looks like it is time to remove all the old paint and start over. You may want an epoxy barrier coatings but that is costly and time consuming but if you want to do it right, do it right the first time. Then apply two coatings with a third coating around the water line. As a former dealer I would have advised that.
 
Aug 28, 2007
127
Hunter 33.5 Northern Neck, VA
Thanks to all for comments. There have been a number of options provided and I will research which ones will work best for me.
Regards
Paul Cyre
S/V The Four C's