Help! I've sprung a leak

Investigation of why the bilge pump was pumping so much reveals a leak in the fiberglass, a small fountain of pin-hole leaks. It has obviously been getting worse because I couldn't find it a couple of days aga. This picture shows the leak - it is below the edge of the shower floor right next to the mast support - more or less on top of the keel. That gray thing on the left is the mast support - the shower drain is on the right.

I've only had the boat (1974 35-2) a few months. We checked the bottom pretty close and there was no sign of delamination. The previous owner said the bilge pump only ran a few minutes, but the rudder post was leaking some and that stopped with new stuffing. It's possible this leak was there, but it was certainly not this bad.

What causes this kind of leak? I am guessing delamination somewhere on the bottom. I'm also guessing I need to get the boat hauled tomorrow morning. If the poor bilge pump tires out I'll have cushions.

Any advice from the experienced sailors out there?

Thanks all.

LarryBud

Thats really not supposed to be happening.

It doesn't look quite like an "emergency" right now, but I think you are doing the right thing by hauling it out real soon.

Good luck.

I've epoxied a piece of wood over the leak and it seems to actually have stopped it, or at least slowed it way down. That's taken some of the edge off, but I keep thinking a huge piece of fiberglass is going to give way. This leak is pretty much right over the keel, and it's not a bolt on keel. I'll be checking the expoxy every few hours until it is completely set. That water, if it is stopped, still is going somewhere, so now I am worried.

Just a guess...

I would suspect some unrepaired or poorly repaired damage of the frp keel. Water leaks in, and fills up the cavity and then puts pressure on the inside filler glass above the ballast lead.
Just a guess, mind you...
When you haul out, water may drain out of the bottom of the keel for quite a while.


Loren

Keel leak

After hauling I found water leaking from the very bottom of the keel. There is an L-shaped gouge on the very bottom from which the water is leaking. I can't tell if it was repaired before or if it is new damage, but the fix seems pretty straight forward - let it drain and dry out, grind out the gouge, and while I'm at it the entire bottom, and put a good layer of expoxy on it. Anyone see any errors in my plan? Thanks, all.

Go over that keel with a fine tooth comb, magnifying glass, etc. I would be very tempted to sand/grind the entire keel to closely inspect every inch of the fiberglass. Any cracks can be ground out, filled and repaired with layers of cloth and epoxy. Make sure the keel is completely drained before doing this. RT

while you are at it remove the bottom paint and address any blister problems. you are certainly done for the season, and will have the time to do the bottom right while the keel dries out. you are paying for it to sit in the yard anyway so make good use of it. It is sad that it comes so soon after you got it, but if you fix it right now it won't need to come back out for another 5 years or so. Good luck, Edd

An E35-2 came in to the yard one year while I was hauled. Same thing, grounding leak in the keel, and water weeping up through the floor. When I bought my boat in 2000, the keel was full of water, but no leaks on top. I didn't know it was supposed to sound hollow when you knocked on it until this boat came in and sounded hollow once it was drained. So I drilled a hole, and sure enough, water drained out for quite a while, and then I patched it, and nine years later it still knocks with a hollow sound. Guess this cavity in the keel has a tendency to get breached.