Hello all, it appears the problem I mentioned earlier (the keel cracked at and below the centerboard stop pin) is much more difficult and serious than I thought before. I am writing to everyone in the hope that maybe someone has dealt with something similar and has some advice to give.
Here is what I was able to see today at the boat yard I took my 1982 M-17 to. The stop pin is bent. On one side of the keel, a triangular piece of fiberglass has come off. It is about 1.5 x 1 in in size. On the other side of the pin the outside of the keel has a crack, about 2in long. It appears to not be just superficial, it is probably the fiberglass that is cracked. One other item that has started to concern me more is the fact that at the place where the keel (outer part, part of the hull) and the centerboard trunk come together, at the very bottom of the keel, there is no seal between them. Is that normal? Along the entire joint, along the length of the centerboard opening, there is a space about 1/16 of an inch between the two, on both sides of the cb opening. So water can go into what I assume must be the area of the keel to the left and right of the cb trunk. If that opening was sealed when the boat was new, how was it sealed? With regard to the cracks in the keel, the guy at the boat yard said I have two options. One way is to take the cb out, and repair the cb trunk where it is cracked (he said it probably is) from the inside, repair the crack in the outside hull, and lay up fiberglass where the missing piece is. Total cost would be about $3500 (ouch). Version two would be to do a repair only on the outside of the keel: grind away some of the existing fiberglass below the cb pin, and lay two or three layers of fiberglass cloth above the existing fiberglass. That would lead to having a small bulge on the keel below the cb stop pin, but he said it would probably not affect the sailing characteristics of the boat. Since this way he does not need to take out the cb, and does no repairs on the inside, the cost would be around $1300 (still quite a lot). He charges $90/hour, is this typical? My questions are: has anyone dealt with a similar problem? What is inside the keel between the cb trunk and the outer hull skin of the keel? Is it filled solid with lead? Does water getting in that area cause problems? I sail my boat from the trailer, so it doesn't have bottom paint and it would never sit in the water for more that a day at a time, perhaps a week per month if we were ever to go out on a trip somewhere. Any suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks, Andrei. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
