keel crack

[glenn]

i have a hairline crack on the port side of my deep keel where the keel to stub joint is. no water entered the boat but now that i have it out of the water i see that some condensation has leaked out. the keel was rebedded last year. since the bolts appear tight and the crack is only on one side and appears to be in the bedding material compound should i just sand the compound away and refill and smooth and finish, or do i need to rebed the keel again?glenn

 

[John]

Your first alternative

The sealant should still be soft since it is encapsulated. I'd heat-lamp the crack area a bit to try to dry it out. When no more water is dripping out re-torque the keel bolts, probably continuing with the lamping, and then reseal the crack. It's really hard to dry the crack out because the water goes so far back inside. If there is no rush to get it back in the water, may want to go a day or two and torque the bolts a second time.On my boat it has taken a couple years (haulouts) to get the crack to not reappear. I suspect the yard may have used too much sealant to begin with.Anyway, that's my suggestion - we'll see what others come up with.

 

[Merrill Mant]

Glass the seam

Our 1992 33.5 developed the same problem. The solution provided by Hunter was to glass over the crack / seam between the hull and the keel. After 2 seasons, we have had no problems of water infiltration at the seam.

 

[Phil Rains]

More info on glassing

Merrill...give us more info on how you glassed. Did you repair the bedding crack first and glass over...did you use a strip of fiber or just paint on epoxy, etc. etc.

 

[bill walton]

Keel Seal

I had a similar problem with my P42. I had the yard drop the keel. The boat was alowed to dry thoroughly. They resealed the mating surfaces with 5200 and retorqued the bolts. The joint was then refaired with layers of mat encapsulating the joint. The entire area was then re smoothed and painted. I've had no more cracks.