E29 Keel Repair questions

I arrived at the boat yard this weekend, only to discover that when the yard moved my boat, the lower aft corner of the keel crumbled. The yard is claiming a weak keel. Based on the two photos attached, I don't think I can argue.

I plan on using Don Caseys book as a reference. My questions are:
Is this a relatively easy Fiberglass repair? (just grind and fill)
In the early E29s (mine is a 71, hull number 54), does the lead fill the entire keel?
If this section does not have lead, could I just cut the corner and glass over the remaining edge?

thanks for any help,
Dave

Hey Dave - I think I would disagree on the yard responsibility - a keel support block should never be put that far aft for just your reason - if it isn't put down perfectly level - ie - that block is a 1/4 inch high or the boat itself is a little out of line as it lowers - the narrow part of the keel will take all the load and crack.
Not positive but my 76 29' I believe is hollow that far aft. and its a pretty simple repair.
Would you (or any wise guy!) know by any chance how the mast wires are run inside the mast in the 29????? - I have what I think is a clanging vhf antenna wire and am going to go up (Brrrrrrrrrr) and take a look.
Ron

I have to agree that the yard has liability here. Given the way the trailing edge of your keel cuts up vertically to the hull of the boat, I can't imagine any excuse for putting the sling on the very aft edge of the keel, which on the E-29 is a deep sump with no particular structure. Every time I've seen a boat lifted with your basic hull shape, a forward sling goes right where the cut of the keel's leading edge is, which also corresponds to where your forward bulkhead is (prevents oil canning), and then the aft sling would go just after where the keel makes the vertical rise and joins the hull. This puts the load on the meat of the hull and leaves the keel unstressed.

Did the damage occur when they lifted it, or when they placed it down on top of the beam in the picture? An external lead keel can take some point loading, but a fiberglass keel - while it is strong enough to take to ground, it not likely to be able to take the force of the type of point loading that you would see when you put a couple of beams across the keel, rather than down the length of it. If they have been getting away with this it is probably because the other boats they handle have external keels.

So I would agree that they are at least in part - if not entirely - at fault. True the keel was not strong enough to withstand what they did, but their blocking of the boat seems suspect.

Every haul I've ever done the yard has found it obvious that the boat's weight must be borne by the front of the keel leaving the back of the keel a few inches off the cradle or block or whatever. Sometimes they knock on the keel to confirm that the back of it is (more or less) hollow -- certainly not solid lead or iron.

In my opinion this is a straightforward example of a yard not following basic procedures for correctly blocking a boat. Even if the keel was "weak" the hauling/lifting/moving process should not discover this weakness!

You need to have a talk with the manager. If you get nowhere, call your insurance company. That said it is probably not a hugely expensive or complicated repair.

Proper blocking?

Good Luck dealing w/ the boat yard! That blocking is obviously in the wrong location for your keel. Try to get the repair to match the existing contours(rather than cutting corners) as every bit of hydrodynamics helps.

Note: Perhaps in the future you should attach proper blocking instructions to the boat(zip-lock taped to the waterline?). There's no guarantee that someone different won't be moving your boat at a later date. Someone w/ a 29??, know what's correct????

Dave,
The keel on the 29 is radiuses to have the lower part of the keel near the center fore and aft of the keel and away from the deep sump that is over a foot fore to aft. The attached photo has a white line at approximately the front of the deep keel. The yard should have never let the boat down with the weight on the back of the keel.

Neglect and poor judgment on the part of the yard. The hollow keel sheared at the front of the load, very plain to see.

The repair is easy as you said grind and lay up the repair. You could even stuff the bottom with mat and resin while it is open.

When I make my template for the floor I will do scale drawings for the E29 and give them with photos to Sean to post as a project. I think it is time that all of us 25, 27 and 29 owners protect our boats. There have been three keel damage posts in the past few weeks and that is enough to give me the message.

Ron,

My 29 had the wires taped to 4x8” sponges every few feet and the sponges formed a bowtie that would keep the wires from slapping in the mast. I replaced this with a wire conduit made of PVC and secured it to the mast with screws through the sail track. Give me a call if you would like the design of the conduit.

Thanks for your comments

Thanks for the comments. I have had had boat at this yard for 5 years, in and out every winter. This is the first time they damaged it. It occurred when they moved it out of the way to get to another boat for launching.

I have brushed up on repair technques, and it does not seem to be difficult. I am in a small private marina and am torn between attempting to repair it myself or confront the owner. Is it worth the wrath of the owner? (slip space is hard to find. He is also the person that assigns the slip and I do not want to be assigned a slip that is difficult to enter/leave). I have talked with the owner again, with the understanding that I will attempt to fix it and if I have trouble, he will step in.

As for the question about the mast wiring, I re-wired the mast 3 years ago. The original cables were run in a trough mounted in the mast. By the time I purchased the boat the mast had already been re-wired once and the trough was not used. I simply ran new wires down the middle of the mast. To prevent "slapping" I placed 4 small cable ties approximately every 4 ft. (without trimming the ends) The 4 ties formed a square holding tight to the wires and the 4 ends sticking out provided a buffer between the wires and the sides of the mast. I do not know how you could fix the noise with the mast up.