[Rhodes22-list] hole in keel mystery

[FNuttersNY at aol.com]

Okay everyone  the area in question is as follows.  ( Son away at camp with 
dig. cam. hence no pics yet) Looking at the boat from the side  and from for. 
to aft the keel runs along the bottom then turns up to meet the hull. The 
centerboard trunk is housed in there but does not go all the way aft  Itstops about 
8 inches from the trailing edge of the keel which is vertical  . Now picture 
a chunk of that trailing edge missing at the point  about one inch bellow the 
hull. The centerboard trunk  has not been damaged and the whole keel/trunk 
area is sold balest/layed up glass and dense with material.  Even the lower part 
of the keel  behind the trunk along the very bottom is sold glass.  But  at a 
point about 5 inches up from the very aft botttom of the keel going up to the 
hull  is hollow right up to where it meets the hull. This void is the width of 
the keel bellow the hull  and I have a  pump with a 6 inch long suction hose 
jamed in there to pick up any  water.   This is the lowest  place in my boat. 
My battery sits just forward of that spot on the right looking aft along the 
trunk. One small detail I forgot to mention.  The centerboard is at the bottom 
of the river.  Now we did get hung up in some soft bottom shallows briefely 
but pulled up the board fired of the engine and  were on our way.  But later on 
in the middle of the river we did a jib and suddenly went nowhere. We think we 
hit metal object on piece of debries. It got tangled in the centerboard  slot 
area and came around and knocked a hole  in  the bottom,  Or it could have 
been the board itself.  The hole is an easy fix. Reconstruct the area with 
fiberglass cloth and so on and fill part of the void with expandable foam giving it 
some density.  As for the board I guess I'll call Stan for a used one.