Repair leading edge keel

[Clydo]

Had boat hauled and found three gouges in leading edge about 1/2" deep 1/2" high one above the other three inches apart. across keel.
I remember couple years hitting something under water. Yard wants to fill with microfibers and resin.
Would this be a proper repair of lead keel?

Appreciate your thoughts.


Clyde Thorington
C310 I LEAN TOO
San Jose, CA

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

What type of resin ......................... polyester or epoxy ?

 

[Clydo]

Had boat hauled and found three gouges in leading edge about 1/2" deep 1/2" high one above the other three inches apart. across keel.
I remember couple years hitting something under water. Yard wants to fill with microfibers and resin.
Would this be a proper repair of lead keel?

Appreciate your thoughts.


Clyde Thorington
C310 I LEAN TOO
San Jose, CA

What type of resin ......................... polyester or epoxy ?

Didn't say but are using epoxy primer on keel.

Thanks for your response.

Clyde Thorington
C310 # 245
I LEAN TOO
San Jose, CA

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Didn't say but are using epoxy primer on keel.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm ?

I would suspect they will continue to use epoxy material which is the toughest product you could use.

 

[dlochner]

Yard wants to fill with microfibers and resin.
Would this be a proper repair of lead keel?

If the keel is properly prepared and the epoxy is properly applied, then this is how it is fixed.

lf I was doing this on my boat, my first layer would use a denser filling, like cabosil, and the second and final layers of fairing would be microballons or an underwater epoxy fairing compound. Followed by an epoxy barrier coat paint.

Either way will work, the yard's method is probably quicker and thus a bit less expensive.

Of course I've never had to patch up a dinged lead keel. ::eye roll::

 

[sailme88]

Your keel might be fiberglass encased. in this case, the recommended patch would be appropriate. I have continues to sustain similar damage. Mine is as a result from making contact with the mushroom anchor in our mooring field during drainers.. The mooring field is scheduled for dredging over the next 3 winters...

 

[American_Mainsail]

Hi Clyde,

This method is generally considered appropriate, but there's a lot of detail left out. What kind of filler, what kind of resin? What happened to produce the damage? How bad is it? It sounds like mostly surface-level issues, is there any structural damage to think about?

If the damage is just shallow pocks on the lead keel ballast itself, this isn't a high stress area. My preferred method would be to fill with epoxy resin and high density or low-density filler depending on how deep the gouges are (Google search West System fillers), or read my blog post about epoxy resins and fillers to familiarize yourself with these materials, here:
American Mainsail Sailing Co.

Here's a picture of an in-process keel fairing job I snapped in my yard last spring. They are using epoxy and low-density filler (West System 407 - the brown areas) to fill fairly shallow imperfections in their keel. The general process is to sand down to bare fiberglass or lead, overfill the imperfections with filler, sand the filled areas until fair once the epoxy has cured enough to take to sanding, barrier coat, and lastly, apply bottom paint.

In my experience, yards will normally reach for more traditional, polyester resin mostly for cost reasons (they're already charging you for labor, cost control is important). This is appropriate too. Many good repairs have been effected with polyester resin.

Epoxy is stronger and doesn't stink like polyester does, so I normally reach for epoxy for small repairs and DIY.

Something to think more about is how these gouges got there. Did you run aground? If the keel took a major hit, consider performing more inspection on the keel/hull attachment. Sound around the keel joint for separation of the hull and structural hull liner. Look for and stress cracks, dislodged/out of place furniture, and vertical and/or side to side movement in the keel when the boat is hanging from the slings and transitioned to sitting on the ground. If in doubt, hire a professional surveyor. Sometimes, insurance companies will pick up the tab for a post grounding survey to make sure that everything is sound.

 

[Clydo]

Hi Clyde,

This method is generally considered appropriate, but there's a lot of detail left out. What kind of filler, what kind of resin? What happened to produce the damage? How bad is it? It sounds like mostly surface-level issues, is there any structural damage to think about?

If the damage is just shallow pocks on the lead keel ballast itself, this isn't a high stress area. My preferred method would be to fill with epoxy resin and high density or low-density filler depending on how deep the gouges are (Google search West System fillers), or read my blog post about epoxy resins and fillers to familiarize yourself with these materials, here:
American Mainsail Sailing Co.

Here's a picture of an in-process keel fairing job I snapped in my yard last spring. They are using epoxy and low-density filler (West System 407 - the brown areas) to fill fairly shallow imperfections in their keel. The general process is to sand down to bare fiberglass or lead, overfill the imperfections with filler, sand the filled areas until fair once the epoxy has cured enough to take to sanding, barrier coat, and lastly, apply bottom paint.
View attachment 227056

In my experience, yards will normally reach for more traditional, polyester resin mostly for cost reasons (they're already charging you for labor, cost control is important). This is appropriate too. Many good repairs have been effected with polyester resin.

Epoxy is stronger and doesn't stink like polyester does, so I normally reach for epoxy for small repairs and DIY.

Something to think more about is how these gouges got there. Did you run aground? If the keel took a major hit, consider performing more inspection on the keel/hull attachment. Sound around the keel joint for separation of the hull and structural hull liner. Look for and stress cracks, dislodged/out of place furniture, and vertical and/or side to side movement in the keel when the boat is hanging from the slings and transitioned to sitting on the ground. If in doubt, hire a professional surveyor. Sometimes, insurance companies will pick up the tab for a post grounding survey to make sure that everything is sound.

Thank you for your informative answer. Hit some underwater object probably wood maybe small log. Inspection
doesn't reveal any separation of keel/hull. No water intrusion after hit. I asked yard to include epoxy notation rather then resin
to their West system microfiber explanation.

 

[Davidasailor26]

their West system microfiber explanation

West System resin is all epoxy, so if they used the name West System in their original proposal they were saying the right thing.

As boat projects go this one isn’t terribly complex. The yard will probably charge quite a bit for their time laying up resin, making it fair, etc, but you can do this kind of project DIY pretty inexpensively if you’re interested in going that route. It’s a good practice job for any future epoxy work you might want or need to do.

 

[American_Mainsail]

West System resin is all epoxy, so if they used the name West System in their original proposal they were saying the right thing.

As boat projects go this one isn’t terribly complex. The yard will probably charge quite a bit for their time laying up resin, making it fair, etc, but you can do this kind of project DIY pretty inexpensively if you’re interested in going that route. It’s a good practice job for any future epoxy work you might want or need to do.

I couldn’t agree more. Working with epoxy is a lot more intimidating than it sounds. Once you develop some very basic know-how and have the materials on-hand, you can knock out a lot of simple repair jobs easily and quickly.

 

[jssailem]

Learning to use epoxy is not complex as was said. It is a handy tool to have in your skill set. You can learn the basics from YouTube, I recommend Andy at "BoatworksToday.com"

Good explanations and easy to take his ideas then create great results.

A good project to learn the skills is to make your own epoxy based fiberglass backer boards. You'll learn how to lay fiberglass and have a useful tool for your next back backer board project like through hulls or winch installs.

 

[justsomeguy]

the yard's method is probably quicker and thus a bit less expensive.

Damn you're an optimist!

 

[dlochner]

you can do this kind of project DIY pretty inexpensively if you’re interested in going that route. It’s a good practice job for any future epoxy work you might want or need to do

And the fish don't care if the fairing isn't perfect.

 

[Clydo]

And the fish don't care if the fairing isn't perfect.

Thanks for all the great information,

Clyde Thorington
C310 # 245
I LEAN TOO
San Jose, CA