Buying first boat - Keel Question - Bavaria 31

[hennypenny]

Hi all,

I have been a lurker on here for a while. So I am sorry that my first post is a request.
To cut a long story short I am looking at buying my first boat, i have seen a Bavaria 31 from 2001 which looks promising.

I have a question about the keel on the one I have seen, it's a complete newbie question but there are a couple of spots of rust on the keel, one on the underside of the front of the bulb and one where it joins the hull. I have a couple of pictures here of it:

Please let me know if the links don't work!

I would be very grateful if any of you could let me know how much of a problem this is and if I should be particularly worried?

Also does anyone know anything about these boats and what they are like?

Thanks very much in advance. Sorry if this is a very basic question.
Henry

 

[XDC]

I don’t know anythImg about the boat other than you see them everywhere so they’re popular.

Rusty keels are an ongoing problem with all boats.

Annual operation for me regardless of marque has been:

Scrape, treat (Fertan), Primocon, antifoul.

 

[ashtead]

As a former owner of a Bav 34 of 2001 vintage can confirm that rust on keel is fairly standard feature. I also used to treat as per post from XDC . Not certain if it reduces issue in subsequent years but seems a common problem in other marques with iron keels. In case you haven't seen there is a Bavaria owners website which might elicit further info on model . You might be more concerned to check if osmosis in rudder for example or when saildrives seal was last changed but no doubt your surveyor would point out these type of points. I suspect apart from buying a sluggish Hallberg with a lead keel which might not be to your taste it just one of those annual jobs. Be interesting to hear from others with Bavs if applying coppercoat assists to address?

 

[William_H]

Yes many boats have a cast iron keel bolted to the hull. A fairly successful arrangement but as said rust becomes a problem. To varying degrees. It does not affect integrity of the keel of course but the rust bubbles lift the primer and antifouling paint off so have to be attended to virtually every haul out. As said this involves grinding out the rust treating the rust then primer and then antifoul paint. Annoying but manageable

 

[Laysula]

I have a 25 year old Bavaria 350 with a rusty keel. As above, just sand prime and coat with antifoul.

http://bavariayacht.org/forum/index.php

 

[Tranona]

Be interesting to hear from others with Bavs if applying coppercoat assists to address?

Having owned 2 Bavs with iron keels I can confirm rust on the keel is common - and not unique to Bavs!. You just have to deal with it as suggested or have the keel blasted and epoxy coated. I can't see the pictures but perhaps a little more investigation around the keel hull joint is wise. Rust there is again common on all iron keels because the sealant can fail and let water in to the edge of th casting. The rust probably looks worse than it is and it may be worth cleaning out the sealant, applying fertan to the iron then putting new sealant in. The surveyor should pick this up and advise.

As to Coppercoat on iron keels this is always problematic. My new Bav was done from new and the keel abraded and epoxy coated before applying Coppercoat, but after 2 years there was some local failure which i repaired by grinding back and recoating. Seems to have worked after a further year, but not been hauled since June and next lift is not until April.

 

[duncan99210]

Standard issue problem for cast iron keels, of which there are thousands out there. It’s a problem with no real permanent solution just an annual grinding of rust spots, treatment and paint. Some years there’s next to nothing, some years it looks like it’s got chicken pox. On one occasion there was two years between lift outs and the pox spots had all joined up, so I took the keel back to bare metal, fertrans, three coats of epoxy primer, three coats of epoxy paint and then antifoul primer and antifoul. Two years later, the pox was back, so I now just treat spots.

 

[Spyro]

Just two spots? That's a good one. Absolutely nothing to worry about

 

[hennypenny]

Thanks all, very helpful responses. I feel more at ease!