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Water in keel

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JB
Navigator

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USA
114 Posts

Initially Posted - 04/21/2003 : 16:57:32

I have an 89 Cat 25 with a wing keel.

I just pulled the boat out of storage and noticed that there are a couple of thin cracks in the keel. The cracks are small and are not along the keel to hull joint. They must have leaked water this winter because the bottom paint has rusty water trails in it. I thought the wing keel was lead and not iron.

Is this something serious?

I was planning to remove the bottom paint where the cracks are and sand down the gelcoat smooth. After that I would re-gelcoat the area and use VC Tar to seal it. Is that a good plan?

Edited by - on

Bill Holcomb
Admiral

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USA
769 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2003 : 17:38:01

Hi JB,

Where are the cracks?

Bill Holcomb - C25 Snickerdoodle #4839

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JB
Navigator

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USA
114 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2003 : 18:16:14

Bill,

They are on the right side, within a foot of the back end of the keel about half way between the wing and the hull.

Edited by - on

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5908 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2003 : 19:53:04

When the layers of bottom paint accumulate and become thick, they can crack and peel, just like house paint. If so, then the cracks will only be as deep as the thickness of the paint, and if you sand away the old paint, the cracks will disappear. My suggestion is that you sand through a crack and see how deep it runs. If it doesn't run into the gelcoat, then it's just peeling, cracking bottom paint.

It is possible that what looks like rusty water trails might really be stains caused by a little pigment leaching out of an old, different-colored bottom paint that has been exposed by the cracks.

I've never heard of any problem like you have described that turned out to be a serious condition.

Steve Milby "Captiva Wind" C-25 T/FK #2554

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Gloss
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1916 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2003 : 20:41:50

I have an 89 wk also. I just went out to the driveway and inspected my keel. I didn't find any cracks in the keel.
When I had the boat hauled and surveyed last winter I did find several hundred small blisters. Now that the boat has been on a trailer for a couple of months while I am doing some renovation work on it the blisters have disappeared. It seems that the blisters were between the bottom paint and the gel coat as I can pop the paint. I feel better about the boat. The 89 models were laid up with vinylester resin to prevent blistering. Maybe this is one of the many reasons Frank Butler couldn't make any money on this boat and discontinued the 25 after only building 223 of the 89 wings.
So maybe you have cracked paint as previously mentioned. Was the water muddy with red clay? Where was the boat kept?
Please keep us posted as to what you do find out.
Thanks for the heads up on this potential problem.

Frank Gloss
89WK/TR

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 04/21/2003 : 23:26:13

JB: The later fin keels (starting at about '84) are fiberglass-encased lead, but I think all of the wings are cast iron--probably for strength of the wings. I doubt that a little surface rust will ever be a problem on that big hunk of iron--except for the possibility of eventually flaking the coating off and making it less fair.

Dave Bristle - 1985 C-25 #5032 SR-FK-Dinette-Honda "Passage" in SW CT

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tinob
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1883 Posts

Response Posted - 04/22/2003 : 10:04:30

My retrofitted wing is of lead but I seem to remember the top portion, oh about 4"/5", were glass. And in the several years since the refit there has never been any separation between the two different materials.

JB you might try torqueing the keel bolts to specs. If your keel and collar are separating (not likely) tightening the keel bolts might control it. The rust colored water oozing out of the crack is a curiosity though.

Val on Calista # 3936

Steve's advice seems the most probable condition

Val Bisagni]<img src="http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b3df11b3127cce94709c5ff2e90000000010" border=0>

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Lowell
1st Mate

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USA
30 Posts

Response Posted - 04/23/2003 : 01:15:18

I have an '87 wing keel that had a similar problem except that there were large blisters on top of the wing on the port side. Water was seeping out of them. I never had any rust coloring though. It turned out that there were imperfections in the lead casting. There was a thin layer of lead covering pockets of what looked sand. Over time the pockets had absorbed water and expanded cracking the gelcoat. The problem area covered a good portion of the top of the wing but only on the port side. I used an air chisle to remove all the bad stuff and get down to solid lead. Turned out the pockets were fairly shallow, only about a 1/2" deep. I patched it all up with West System epoxy. It looks like new now.

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.