bananaing after rerig, keel boat leaking?

[secrabtree]

When I first bought my Cal 39 in 1978 the water didn't always leak in. It took a while for me to figure out. I was berthed in the San Juaquin River near Antioch CA in very shallow water. What was happenning was that at low ride the bolt on keel was about a foot or two into the soft mud. The gentle rocking of the boat when another boat passed, leaving a very slight wake, caused a small motion of the keel and that pumped some water - muddy San Juaquin River water, into the hull. When it was a positive tide the keel didn't hit the mud and there was no leak. The keel bolts went through the hull, about a quarter inch of air, and then through the "pan" of the interior furniture. That allowed for the motion that pumped the muddy water into the hull. The repair was dropping the keel, drilling the "pan", but not the hull, filling the space thus created with fiberglass, redrilling holes for the keel bolts and remounting the keel. Thus there was no air space and the keel bolts could be tightened against firm fiberglass. It worked - at least it worked until I sold the boat in 2015, 37 years later.

[Lennie]

Try going to the Jeanneau owners site and ask other Jeanneau owners. And in my opinion the rigging has nothing to do with it. Maybe the shaft seal?

[boatbroke]

Hi Jonnyj,

Just saw this post from in news letter. I don't think your wasting anyones time mate, always worth thinking about this sort of stuff, better than making to front page of the paper if it goes pear shaped!

I doubt it is the rigging side, boats do bend under tension, but the keel should be a nice strong back and prevent the keel separating, especially when the bolts are done nice and tight.

As for the keel framing structure, the part is produced it in its own mould and it is mostly glued in position in the boat, great in theory. However the glue bonding is often not well spread out (or thick enough for sufficient 'squeeze out'), allowing for air voids, often around important areas in the faming.

It is worth having a good look around for hairline cracks (egg-shelling) in the gelcoat in the radius right next to the keel-bolts/washers (this goes for any production vessel built in this manner).

The hairline cracks may look innocent but they are actually a sign of movement. Upon further inspection when the gelcoat is removed in this area there will often be de-lamination present. This will be a fair job to repair.

However, I have seen many times where a keel framing structure is perfectly sound and the keel is leaking. This may simply be a case of a poor seal at the hull/keel join, similar to say a deck fitting leaking.

When we put keels back on we would have new large stainless plates made to cover all of the bolts in the bay (mostly, sometimes that would have been ridiculous). We would wax and tape the plates, then bed them down in a thickened epoxy mix with milled/chopped fibres and glue powder, only lightly tightening the keel bolts. We would then release everything when it was hard, clean it all up and then Sikaflex (5200) everything together to the correct torque settings. The idea is to get an even pull over a much larger area than just that of a washer, and try to get as many bolts working together as possible.

Hopefully it is not the keel. I'd try look around the rudder whilst sailing (a likely suspect) or the shaft seal whilst motoring

As someone stated earlier, fresh water sometimes tastes a little salty when it picks up residue from the bilge, maybe the fridge (although not sure about 5 gallons).

It is worth persisting and finding out exactly where it is coming in.


Good luck with it mate!

Adam