Another Catalina Smile post

[Whiskymac]

When I bought my boat 5 years ago I noticed a slight trickle of rusty water dripping from an invisible crack about 8 inches back along the port side of the keep joint (wing keel). The previous owner(who was a very straight shooter) said he had never seen a sign of the smile before and we negotiated $1000 off the purchase price.

I tightened these keel bolts, made sure the winter blocking was correct and never saw signs of a leak again. However I have had a consistent wet bilge and suspected I was getting water infiltration form the joint.

This winter I saw some crazing of the outer layer of either fairing or anti fouling (sorry no picture) and decided to investigate.

I found a crack in the fairing/filler running from about 8"back on Starboard side to about 12" back on Port side and ground it out (CS 1). It all looked really good. I then ground back a little further in the area I had noticed the rusty seepage and food a couple of small voids (CS 2). I ground this area a little further and it all looked good and solid again (CS 3). I then poured a bucket of water in the bilge too check for leaks and the outside remained dry.

I am fairly happy with the condition of the joint and planned on doing with either g-flex or flexible thixo https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/product/product-detail/336174
However I hadn't anticipated the depth I would need to fill and fair at the front of the keel (CS 4) , probably 1.5"-2" and I'm not sure whether this can be done with several thinner layers off flexible epoxy or whether I need to start with a good coating of the epoxy and then build up with layers of some sort of fairing/filter? This would seem to negate the effect of using a flexible epoxy too account for any flexing or movement in the joint?

Thoughts?

[Ron Hill]

Jeremy : See how you fix goes.  if you still get outside water (not rain down the mast) you should consider lifting the hull and resealing (3M5200) the hull to keel.

A thought

[glennd3]

Jer did you get water in the bilge while on the hard from rain?

[Whiskymac]

No I havent been getting  water in the bilge while on the hard but I have a custom cover. That wouldn't stop rain from coming down the mast so that rules that out.
I read about someone getting water from cracked scupper drain hoses. I've never checked mine so that is on my list to check.
I wish I was in salt water, that would help too narrow it down.

Also need help on how to build up the front of the keel??

[Stu Jackson]

Don't know if you've seen this 101 topic:

Rebedding a Keel Stub 101  The Catalina Smile with Pictures

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6842.0.html

[KWKloeber]

Jeremy

I banded my entire joint (I had ground all fairing down to the lead/keel stub and removed the keel.)  I used biaxial cloth and colloidal silica per Gougeon Bros recommendation (if I did it again I'd probably use carbon.)  But since then I'd recommend you use microfibers that's what I use exclusively now for several reasons.
Build it out with cloth or mat, grind back the good fairing 12:1for the last layers to overlap atop the old. There's guidance on the approach in the EpoxyWorks literature on the West Systems website. If you had ground a deep narrow crack, say into the actual bedding, gflex would have been appropriate but not for your fill job.

Make sure to seal around the keel bolts under the washers so no water can make it's way down the threads.