Serious water seepage

[yknotsail]

Help!! We have a 24" horizontal crack in the fiberglass fairing on both sides of the keel; about 18" below the hull. The crack is running aft to forward. We ground and faired it out and launched after 5 month on the hard. We are taking water on seeping through limber holes on both sides of the bilge and have to haul out immediately rather than cruise for the winter.
There is NO water coming up from the bolts or any through hull. Does anyone have any idea about what would cause this? Keel hull connection? Keel bolt looseness? Hull delamination?
We anxiously await any good responses. Thank you.

 

[Tom Metzger]

It can't hurt...

It can't hurt to tell us what boat you are talking about. If you have a problem someone may answer if they have the same boat. If they don't, their answer may be garbage.

This goes for everybody!!

 

[yknotsail]

water intrusion on '85 E38 shoal draft

that help?

does the glass fairing at around the keel hull joint have any structural intent or just hydrodynamic??

 

[u079721]

If you use the search funtion (upper right) you should be able to find quite a bit about E38s and leaking keels.

My guess would be that you have a crack in the keel-stub joint, and that the keel is not properly bonded to the hull. On our shoal draft 1989 E38-200 there was a leak through this joint that visibly let in water when the boat was launched. If this is the case with yours, then glassing over the crack is only a temporary measure, and the only true way to fix this is - unfortunately - is to drop the keel and have it rebedded with either epoxy or 5200.

That glass is not truly structural, and many of the boats (like ours) do not even have the joint glassed over.

Pictures would help?

 

[yknotsail]

keel leak

Thanks for the info. I'm going to retorque the keel bolts, and have already groung and glassed the crack. If there is still a problem, then dropping the keel sounds like the only remaining option. I'd like to squeeze out the winter cruising (6 months) if any remaining leakeage in minor enough.

 

[NateHanson]

As opposed to glassing the keel-hull joint, another approach is to grind a groove between them, and then fill it with a bead of something more flexible, like 5200. That's what I did on my Columbia 26 which had a leaking keel joint, and it worked great. Looked great too. I tend to think that glassing a weak joint is counterproductive. Perhaps a freshly rebedded keel could hold up to glassing over, but a 20-year old bedding job, even with retorqued bolts, is likely going to move enough to immediately loosen up the bond of fiberglass, and leak again.