Steve;
I have had two conditions cause this. First (and easiest to deal with) was that the bottom of the keel was damaged by a grounding. On the E-34, the lead ballast is near the top of the keel and the bottom is all solid fiberglass. Where the fiberglass had broken, water collected in the gaps and worked it's way into the small pockets and voids in the fiberglass keel shroud. I drilled several small holes near the bottom and a lot of water drained out. When the draining stopped, I ground away a lot of the keel and re-glassed it. When we lifted the boat to put it back in the water, I re-glassed the bottom of the keel.
The other was much more incideous. Water was seeping out from a hairline fracture in the hull skin about two feet in front of the keel. The water would then make it's along the hull, down the leading edge of the keel, an drip from the bottom. This fracture was a result of the same grounding. I drilled a small hole into the crack, through the outer shell (1/8"). Again a lot of water came out. The core was wet.
I then drilled a lot of holes and let the hull drain thoroughly. When I was confident it was dry, I ground into that section through the skin to the core, which had dried out after several weeks. I pathced the hull with about six layers of fiberglass, faired it and treated it with VC-Tar then bottom paint.
The repairs have now held for three seasons and I'm confident that the repairs are solid.
All of this represented a LOT of work. Certainly more than 60 hours.
Good luck with your project.
Steve Valentor
