Crack between Keel and Hull
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Hi All,
I hauled Lively yesterday and found a disturbing crack between the hull and the keel (see pics). Is this a matter of tightening the keel bolts and patching or could it be something more nefarious? For what it’s worth the boat has an inboard and lives in her slip but was on a trailer for a couple of years.
ThanksHere are the pics. Had to shrink ’em to upload.
Hi Javier,
Your issue it sounded like something similar to what I’ve observed on Ritalin… keel joint cracking (stb side only) with corrosion and lime stains leaking out. But looking at the pictures, I believe this cracking is well above the keel joint, so I don’t think it’s an issue with keel bolt tightness… unfortunately, I can’t help you any more then that.
We’ve just had Ritalin professionally repaired:
Milled out area seam where keel & hull connect, cleaned up, mixed & applied
G-Flex epoxy, sanded, mixed & applied Microballons, sanded, mixed & applied
Interprotect barrier coat on keel/hull seam. 4.25hrs x $80/hr = $340
650-8 West System G/flex Epoxy 1 $30
MB5G Phenolic Micro Ballons p/litre $20
Sanding supplies, mixing containers, spreaders, etc. $20
=$410+13%tax
MikeYou’re right it is above the keel/stub joint – which would’ve surpised me less. Thanks for the cost number. I asked the yard to send me an estimate; we’ll see how it comapres.
That looks structural to me. I just removed my keel and the joint is about 6″ below your cracking. That appears to be cracked right at the hull where it is a solid glass protrusion that is actually the bilge. I attached a photo of what it looks like without the keel.
Javier – please share your quote once received; always interesting to benchmark.
I’ve attached photos of the works done.Javier,
Not a big deal. I’ve seen it on many Olson’s. Cut it open make sure it’s DRY and repair with glass filled epoxy, maybe cloth on top, fair, barrier coat and paint. EZG-Flex underwater? Hmmmmmm, didn’t think that was an okay application. I’ll do some checking.
Jim is right…grind it out. Dry? Epoxy/filler/fair/barrier.
Tighten the bolts..movement could rack the sump. Who knows?
Second look…that is at the keel joint on the starboard side. I would drop the keel, re-seat, fill/fair/barrier.
Hey Bruce, not sure what you mean by G flex or “rack the sump”
G Flex is a West System brand of epoxy..I consider it household and not marine. Haven’t looked that up yet…just something that rings a bell.
If the bolts are loose, you will get the crack like in the second pic. It is bad enough to drop the keel..clean it up and glass/fair again. You could try just grinding it out, tightening and re-fair..but you have done more than half the work already and done it ‘half assed’. Dropping the keel is not difficult.
Yard just called me and said it’s been repaired and already painted over w/ Micron 66! Didn’t bother telling me they were going to do it evn though I asked for an estimate. arrrgh. Anyway the pProcess pretty much what Jim said and the yard said they see this all the time. They dremmeled out the crack and filled it with West System 205. Keel bolts were tight. No issues from in bilge area.
Javier, your cracks are not keel join. Michael Hull’s photo’s show keel joint cracks. Very different issue. Don’t worry
I probably looked at the wrong pictures.
I did. I get one of these about every three years, not as big. Minor fix. Have one to take care of this spring before launch. No biggie.
Here are the pictures of the epoxy fix before sanding and painting. I’ll upload the cost went I get the final figures.
Hi,
I know exactly what you are going through, my theory on why it happens on all the boats is that the keel is larger than the sump (the bottom of the boat). Originally the keel was designed smaller but later changed on hull #2 to a longer chord, so every Olson has an area above the keel filled with what looks like bondo. See photos.
I don’t think just epoxy will fix it since the boat flexes so much, on Passages I had to grind the surface down, replaced the bondo chunk with carbon fiber and added a layer of lateral fiberglass (this will keep it from cracking again I hope) all the way around.
I hope it helps, send me a message if you need moral support etc…
Attached are the photos of keel with out the chunk on the back, the-glassing and final finishing.
I ended up putting an epoxy bottom on the boat afterwards, as a barrier seal.See the page on the blog:
http://olson30.tumblr.com/page/10Cheers
I replied to Mike Hull a while back but noticed my reply hadn’t posted on the forum. Here’s the final tally: not too painful.
Total cost for the job was $265.
Here’s the breakout according to the yard:
Labor: 1.5 hr x $110 = $165
Deremeled out small cracks on keel/ground out spot on edge, filled with West System, sanded and painted
Parts: $100
Prep and paint materials
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