Chipping keel?

[girmann]

I'm getting what looks like gelcoat chipping on the bottom of the keel. Five years ago, the PO shell blasted the bottom and coated with two coats of west system barrier coat. The yard looked at the bottom of my keel yesterday and said they never did the bottom of the wing. Offered to put me in the slings for a day or two in July for me to grind it off and barrier coat the bottom of the keel. Sounded more than fair. I mean, I'm sure they're going to charge me, but they said it would just cover their costs.

Is there anything I'm missing from this? Anyone do this job and found it to be more onerous than they thought?

Mark
Mola Mola #1488

[KWKloeber]

Honest question, inquiring minds want to know.

What's the purpose of paying to epoxy-barrier-coat a lead keel? 
A barrier coat is to prevent blisters from forming on a polyester-fiberglas hull.

Isn't a good paint primer enough on a lead keel?

-Ken

[girmann]

Good question. Only that the rest of the hull has it. I hadn't even thought about doing something different. If primer is all that's needed than great! But I wonder, then, why did Catalina gelcoat the keel?

Honest question, inquiring minds want to know.

What's the purpose of paying to epoxy-barrier-coat a lead keel? 
A barrier coat is to prevent blisters from forming on a polyester-fiberglas hull.

Isn't a good paint primer enough on a lead keel?

-Ken

[KWKloeber]

Good question. Only that the rest of the hull has it. I hadn't even thought about doing something different. If primer is all that's needed than great! But I wonder, then, why did Catalina gelcoat the keel?

Honest question, inquiring minds want to know.

What's the purpose of paying to epoxy-barrier-coat a lead keel? 
A barrier coat is to prevent blisters from forming on a polyester-fiberglas hull.

Isn't a good paint primer enough on a lead keel?

-Ken

That question wasn't necessarily directed to your situation — I don't know what CTY did over the years regarding gel coating lead.  Maybe Stu/Ron know?
It seems absurd to me but.... 

If you're getting gel coat chipping off, that seems to me that maybe it's not a good idea to adhere gel coat to lead. 
Or, is it a substrate letting loose that gel coat was applied on top of?

My '84 keel was never gel coated. I thought normal practice was to (if at all needed) fair it and shape the foil (as I did in some spots using West low density filler) and paint it and the fairing.

[ewengstrom]

Kevin,
You pose a valid question with "What's the purpose of paying to epoxy-barrier-coat a lead keel?
A barrier coat is to prevent blisters from forming on a polyester-fiberglas hull."
But I would note that Mars Keel, the current manufacturer of lead keels for Catalina Yachts, does coat their new and repaired keels with Interprotect 2000E before palletizing and shipping.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that lead will oxidize very quickly without some sort of protection and an epoxy barrier coat sure qualifies as a good protective coat.
I've personally seen this kind of oxidation and it happens very, very quickly. There is a mild coating of oxidation after only one hour and it gets heavier as more time passes.
I personally didn't mind grinding the exposed parts and immediately coating them with an epoxy barrier coating to protect it. I honestly can't think of a paint coating I would have substituted, but even though my boat is done and re-launched at this point, I'd be interested in knowing if there were an equivalent or better coating.

[Ron Hill]

Mark : Here is what I do before the spring splash. Late in the day I have the yard lift Apache up so I can examine and bottom paint the underside of the wing.  Then the boat hangs in the slings there overnight and lets the paint dry. I'm the first splash the next AM.  Works well.

A few thoughts

[girmann]

Ron,

that's a good suggestion, and one I'm going to do at the end of July. For now, I just slapped some antifouling as best as I could and will deal with it then. This should be sufficient until then, no?

Mark : Here is what I do before the spring splash. Late in the day I have the yard lift Apache up so I can examine and bottom paint the underside of the wing.  Then the boat hangs in the slings there overnight and lets the paint dry. I'm the first splash the next AM.  Works well.

A few thoughts

[KWKloeber]

Eric

That all makes "a couple long tons" of sense.  That's why Mars is a primo company.

Epoxy would with some protection against minor (sand) groundings (not that any Catalina sailor would ever "run across" that situation!)


Still... gel coating?  I don't get it.

Ken
Thx