Oday 39 Keel Leak

[Tom]

I have been taking on water for the past couple of weeks and this week had the boat hauled. It appears water has penetrated between the hull and the bolted on cast iron keel. The iron has rusted and begun to flake off. I'm not sure what should be my best method to attack repairing it. I have removed much of the caulk between the edge of the keel flange and the hull and I am allowing the joint to drain/dry out.Should I just try to recaulk or should I have the yard drop the keel and rebed it completely. We are still not sure how the water got to the inside of the hull. Of the 14 keel bolts, we could see 13 and they did not appear to be leaking. We also checked thru hulls and found no apparent leaks, the shaft dripless coupling was not leaking, I emptied the fresh water tank. The only other potential source was the knot meter and depth sounder thru hulls. I'm not sure whether they could be the problem.

 

[Denise]

Is yours a newer Oday?

I thought most had encapsulated keels... many of the some of the newer ones were built by Pearson though. Water intrusion is tough to find. If the boat is now out of the water and rebedding the keel is going to happen I'm sure it's going to cost you a bundle! Most likely you will be replacing the keel bolts too. If you had the time you could maybe dye the water in the bilge to see it leaks out where it came in. I'm not sure but water getting in behind the hull liner from places like the stanchions ports and other deck hardware finds it's way to bilge too. Was it enough that sinking was a possibilty? Clean bilge water and the pump cycling often means its an active leak. Dirty smelly bilge water means it's coming from somwhere above the keel and just getting stagnant in the bilge. your raw water system could be leaking too. I've seen what others have done to rebed keels and it's mostly done with 3m 5200 and new hardware with SS plates used instead of the washers. Iron keels I think must be blasted and primed with epoxy. Hope this helped some good luck!

 

[Tom]

Not a Newer boat

Thanks for your response. This is not a newer boat. It is a 1983 and the 39 with the 5 foot draft had a bolted on cast iron keel. This was about a 6 gallon per day leak and it was salt water. The water appeared to be very clean. I had emptied both of the water tanks and we had not had any rain here for weeks. I'm planning to rebed or replace the transducer thru hulls and see whether that helps.