[Rhodes22-list] Cracks in keel

The Rhodes 22 Email List rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
Wed Jun 18 08:02:01 EDT 2014


Graham,
It appears that the previous owner(s) of your boat neglected her in a bad  
way. My guess is that she was grounded or beached a lot. I've never seen a 
keel  in such sad condition and I've been under many a Rhodes 22. I'm afraid 
that a  complete rebuild/repair of the keel is necessary. I would start by 
removing all  of the ballast so that you can see both sides of the keel to 
make the repairs.  It's a slurry of concrete and lead shot if I remember 
correctly. Drilling or  using a hammer drill and scooping out is the only 
solution. If any voids are  left after the repair, you will be back to square one 
in a very short times.  Injecting epoxy will work, only IF you find all the 
voids. After removing the  ballast, the rest of the work is simply glass work.
I like your lift. I might have to build me one and I love your hull color.  
I repainted RumRunner several years ago and went with yellow also.
 
Rummy
 
 
In a message dated 6/17/2014 4:32:30 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org writes:

I have  finally put my boat  into the lift I built so that I can begin work
on  the cracks in the keel and would welcome any advice as to how this might
be  fixed and speculation as to the cause so that I might prevent it  from
happening again.

Picture 1 is of the boat in the lift. This  allows me to get under the keel
to work in reasonable comfort.
The next  two pictures show the cracks with the camera under the keel 
looking
up. The  centreboard is removed. The cracks run along the edge where the
bottom of  the keel meets the inside of the centreboard slot.

As for the cause, I  suspect that some time in the past the keel was damaged
leaving a crack  that allowed water to enter where it might have froze in 
the
winter doing  further damage. On the other hand I would have thought that 
the
water would  have drained out before freezing temperatures were reached.

There  appears to be voids in the keel. The last shot shows were I was
drilling  out osmosis blisters and went right through the skin into a void.
Tapping  on the skin often creates a hollow sound suggesting that there are
plenty  more voids. It seems to me that voids under the skin are a recipe  
for
problems. Drilling holes and pumping in epoxy would not be that  difficult
for those I find under the outside skin but would be much more  difficult 
for
voids under the skin in the centreboard slot - which  currently looks 
intact.
I thought I might drill a series of holes through  the cabin bottom into the
keel and push more epoxy down from above. To find  voids I might need to
drill a lot of holes.

As for the cracks, my  current plan, absent any other ideas, is to open the
cracks to allow access  with a cartridge tip and force thickened epoxy up
into the crack. I would  then apply layers of cloth and epoxy from about 3"
up to the slot down and  around the bottom and up 3" on the outside. I have
ground out a bevel on  the inside to allow for layers of cloth to be added
without making the slot  too narrow for the centreboard. 

When all that is done I plan to do the  whole bottom - drill out blisters 
and
do the blister prevention program  recommended by West System. I don't want
to ever do this again so  suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance.

Graham  

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