iron keel

[Chris]

I am looking at an 87 h31.What is the story with the iron keel? is it more work? more expensive , less reliable?Does it really need to be ground shiny and expoxied when I do the bottom?Will the keelboats give out on me?Sorry I'm too lazy to read 5 years of forum on this oneChris

 

[Steve Dion]

How old are you?

Chris:How old are you? 25, 35, 45....75. Regardless, if you never painted the keel and let it rust for the next 100 years, there would be enough iron there to last longer than you would EVER care.The keel bolts are stainless steel. If you keep these clean they are fine. You do not want the to have paint or any other type of "protective coating" on them that may starve them from air.You can follow the instructions on the Interlux site and paint your keel, this should keep it looking nice for several years. Yes they are more maintenance than lead but nothing that you ever need to really worry about. If you do not treat it for the rust, the bottom paint will not stay on like it does with the fiberglass.Hunter is not the only mfg that has/does produce boats with cast iron keels. Lead is more dense than cast iron, but do you really care?The Hunter 31 is probably the biggest 31 footer on the market (current models included). They sail fairly well and are pretty much trouble free. Be sure that the mast step is not leaking and you should not have too many surprises.

 

[jim johnson]

iron keel concerns

I have a 87 hunter 31, have owned it 5 years, always fresh water. While i suppose a lead keel would be somewhat more effective, greater density, my boat sails fine. all i do each spring is scrape it trouch up the rusty areas with rustoleum, the paint with bottom paint when painting the bottom. i paint the bottom every spring with nominally priced bottom paint. expect that cast iron will last a lot longer than me. Boat is great to sail, roomy for overnighting, good layout. primarily sail singlehanded. my biggest gripe is the cockpit drain over the quarterberth, leaks since the drain line runs uphill from fitting to the transom. Will replace it with solid pipe to the transom flex this year. if you have further questions, feel free to correspond.cvttejim@yahoo.com