Keel Repair

We are new owners of an E29 and totally at the mercy of the marina. They attempted to launch today..in she went, and out she came. It was quite an exciting day as her bilge filled up with water and we had four guys with their heads down in all the holes trying to figure it out. After we pulled her out we discovered a fairly large hole in the keel..so on to plan B.

Life is full of surprises, and just think yesterday I was fretting that the fenders were dirty...

I attached a photo..any expert opinions

Another pic

Another pic..

This is ugly but not a horrible situation. You can do the repair yourself if you have worked with fiberglass.
The back foot or so of the keel is hollow on the E29 and a few other E boats. This boat was set on the hard with support under the back (Hollow) part of the keel or it was lifted with a strap under this part of the keel.
You will have to grind out the damaged part and do the 12 to 1 slope on the edges and build up the patch with fiberglass mat, cloth and epoxy resin. Make sure that you do a very strong repair.
Consider pouring five gallons or so of concrete in the hollow (mix the concrete thin) in the keel after the repair is made then take a rod and tamp the concrete to help it level itself in the keel hollow. You can access this area through the bilge cover at the companionway steps.

Thank you Randy-

We have a friend who works magic with auto body work and is going to help us. I know marine grade and auto are different.

The marina told us water must have gotten down, froze and split the keel. I was thinking it must have been placement in the cradle. It was in the yard all last summer and they move the boats around weekly.

Prior Keel Threads

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=437&referrerid=28

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=6288&referrerid=28

There are probably other threads, with some more searching.

Good luck,

Loren

Hi Randy - Here is a picture of the strap placement.

Ice pushes things out, your keel is pushed in.

Be sure to remove all the paint in the area around the hole and make sure you get all the damaged area repaired.

I must agree this looks pushed in and screams of being put down too hard when she was blocked at some point. Don't despair though. While this looks nasty, the boat is well built and you have just the bad luck of something happening to probably the one vulnerability on the boat, which is that very deep sump in the aft part of the keel. Remember to be thorough in getting back to good solid laminate. One of the great things about FRP is that very good lasting repairs can be made. Here's one for inspiration for you. It's a patrol boat that was rammed and repaired using West System (lot's of good epoxies out there, I have mostly stuck with West due to the wealth of information and support available for all sorts of projects, like this one)

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/custom-fiberglass-boat-repair/

and a .pdf file with pictures and text:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/Uploads/Ew21customrepair.pdf


Good luck, and look forward to sailing your nice boat in short order.

Hi Condor,

I agree with Emerald and Randy. That does not look like a split caused by ice. It's good (and maybe a little interesting) that the yard crew caught the problem so quickly.

More importantly, make sure you get those fenders cleaned ;-).