Leaking Keel

[chuck stas]

I just sanded the bottom of my Boat to paint it. When I was finished I saw a dark spot and thought I missed a spot on the middle of the Keel. Turns out it was wet, then I saw a drop of water coming out of the back of the keel. I thought the keel was a solid iron ?
Any ideas how water is coming out of a keel.The boat has been on the hard for 4 months.

 

[Capt jgw]

Is the water coming from the ballast/hull joint or further down in the iron part of the keel? If its coming from the joint, that's not good, could be a sign of water intrusion into the joint, degraded keel bolts, etc. Lots of threads here about that. If its further down, it may be coming from under fairing material. The keel castings are pretty rough and often require extensive fairing to give an acceptable surface. Water may have found it's way in and of now leaking out. Proper fix is to break out the loose stuff, prep the metal surface, and refair. If its iron, it's likely rusty. I'd go in with a wire wheel to remove as much rust as possible then treat the surface with phosphoric acid (Ospho) which you can get at Home Depot in the paint section. Follow label directions.

 

[njlarry]

It could be water from the bilge or it could be condensation. If it wasn't there before or since, might be the later.

 

[Evan656]

Maybe water from the bilge finding its way down a keel bolt and out through the recently sanded area. Or water getting behind keel surfacing and into a pocket. Sanding probably opened a pore or crack for the water to come through. Any other softness, like water trapped along the keel joint seem? If you push on the seem, does water squeeze out? Recent rain? Or any water in the bilge?
If keel bolts/keel joint, a good thing to know. Assuming no water damage, clean the joint to remove caulk and encourage further drainage. Let it dry out. Torque the keel bolts to specified torque for your boat and reseal the joint. You might also inspect the bilge and reseal here as well to stop any water from finding its way down the bolts.
If anything more suspicious, you may be looking at dropping the keel to inspect the bolts and keel stub. And then rebedding the keel stub joint and torquing the bolts down to squeeze out bedding material and to seal the joint.

 

[chuck stas]

I want to Thank everyone for the response. I now have a place to start. The water is coming out of the back of the botton of the keel, also out of the middle dead center of the keel on the port side.there seems to be a hole about 1/2 the size of a pencil eraser and rusty, the bottom looks like clear rain water.
The bilge has some water but not enough to turn its self on.I'll take a good look at it over the week end and try to get some better pictures. Any info will help
Thanks again.

 

[njlarry]

I dunno, in the pics, it looks awfully low on the keel to have anything to do with the keel bolts. I thought all o'days had solid keels.Was your keel glassed over?

 

[chuck stas]

How would you tell ? Tap [ not to hard ] it with a hammer ?
will look at it this weekend

 

[Sunbird22358]

The information that I have (1978 Brochure) mentions that the keel is molded as part of the hull with lead ballast inserted inside. So, no keel bolts. (The early years for the O'DAY 34, around 1981-3 used a cast-iron keel, bolted on the a stub, later years and all of the 35's had the originally spec'd lead fin bolted on). These models with bolt-on keels had a fiberglass/polyester coating on the keel to smooth them and make painting easier.
Sounds like maybe either condensation or bilge water may have seeped into the keel between the fiberglass shell and the lead ballast slug and it may have frozen over the winter causing a minor crack in the keel shell. Now with warmer weather it is leaking out.

 

[JJShockley]

Could be that water has intruded, either from bilge or leaking when in the water... I am on the progress of refitting a 79 O'day 23-2 and had rain get into the bilge before I sealed deck hardware... now its dripping out the keel and has been for a couple of weeks now... this boat as not been in the water for five years... I have sealed the bilge with penetrating epoxy, and have excavated the area where water was dripping from on the keel... the Po had multiple groundings and had repaired the cracked areas on the keel with various questionable fillers and sealers which I have removed. When The water finally stops dripping I intend a repair with west system epoxy... better to have found the problem now then after launch, lol.... suggest u too seal the bilge area with epoxy, allow drips to dry out, excavate area where drips are coming from and seal her up....
Regards