What is this bilge keel doing?

[GTom]

Found an interesting phenomenon on a Westerly bilge keel boat:



Any thoughts on the hull-keel joint? Is it normal that it stays wet?

[Glenn.Brooks]

Don’t know anything about Westerly bilge keel boats, but every external keel boat I have owned weeps water. The keel to hul joint works and breaks the caulking/ hull joint, letting water penetrate. Not a big deal except for eventual keel bolt corrosion or watching for hull delamination in FG boats. This one looks like an internal keel, skinned over with FG? If so, I would worry about keel bolt corrosion and also think about a long term dry out (as in months and months of layup) then reglassing the keel to prevent water from saturating the hull and breaking down the glass and laminate bond.

[GTom]

It's a bolted keel, not encapsulated.

Westerlies had issues with bilge keels because they point a bit outside and if moored on a soft mud berth, huge lateral forces degrade the hull/keel joint. Many Centaurs and other bilge keel Westerlies sunk on their moorings due to this issue, I want to know if this is one of the signs I should avoid before buying a westerly bilge keel boat.

[keithw88]

Westerly keels are cast iron with usually 5 stainless steel " keel bolts" (actually threaded-bar rods) tapped into the keels - with washers and nuts inside the hull. They are not encapsulated - but originally glass mat was used to cover the joint.
Some of their bilge-keelers (Centaurs at least) have developed cracking (after many years) around the moulded FG stub keels through which the "keel bolts" pass. Many have reportedly been strengthened to address this.
However, stainless steel hates being hidden from oxygen at the same time as being wet ("crevice corrosion" and maybe other mechanisms); so if I were an owner or thinking of being one, apart from ensuring there is no structural weakness, I would pull some or all of the keel bolts and assure myself that there is no significant wasting of the keel bolts - then if/when all is sound re-bed and re-seal.
Further, if there is any rusting of the top of the cast iron keel where it should mate with the stub keel, I would really want to get rid of it it and treat it with a rust stopper (just like the chassis of an old car). This is simple enough for a fin keeler, when the boat can be lifted right off the keel if necessary, but I would not remove a keel fully from a bilge-keeler - in which case, I would break the connection to give me just enough room to get some a file or somesuch into the gap to clean it up. That might entail fitting some temporary longer keel bolts to give me enough space.
All-in-all, potentially a nightmare.

[GTom]

Apparently, such a sight definitely calls for checking at least the first and the last bolts for each keel then. Keel re bedding tasks are not unknown to UK yards it seems.