"Leaking Keel"

[Greg Wilson]

A friend told me recently that when he hauled his Catalina 30 out of the water for the season he actually observed water leaking out of the keel. He had a hole drilled in the keel, drained out water and plugged the hole. He suspects the water may have been coming in around the keel bolts in the top but he's not sure. He also found high moisture in the boat's hull, with a few voids in the hull also.Does anyone have experience with this type of problem? Thoughts on seriousness of it and how to remedy? The owner is thinking about putting an epoxy barrier coat on the hull when it dries out but is not sure that will do it.Any thoughts will be appreciated.

 

[Bob Camarena]

Leaking from where on the keel?

Where was the water leaking from? Where was the hole drilled. As far as I know, the C-30 keel is solid. If it's high up near the joint where the keel meets the hull, it may just be water that's found it's way into a void in the filler that's sealing the joint crack. This one puzzles me.

 

[Dean Bachelor]

sandblast it?

Hey Greg, When I got my C30 the bottom had just been sandblasted and the keel was raw lead, the seam area between the hull and the lead was all cleaned out. It had voids in the lead of various sizes from a pea to a quarter. We completely epoxied the lead with West system, this filled all the holes. The bilge area may be leaking also though, they better check that area closely too. Good luck. Deanblowinganddrifting@yahoo.com

 

[Keith Branton]

Leaking Keel

A common place to find a leak is at the "CatalinaSmile" area, the point where the lead keel adjoins the bottom of the hull. I had a persistent problem in this area. Finally solved by gouging deeply,filling with a GOOD compound such as 3M and then fiberglassing over the whole area and finally finishing with good fairing compound. This appears to work. I am in an area with freezing winters and any water that is in there will freeze and crack the gelcoat. This also happened and was repaired in the same manner DRACO #2301 PS mines a 27 but the construction is the same