Damage to the keel

[Devan]

A friends boat has suffered some damage in the keel area, it is a small trailer sailer that sits on a mud berth, and goes creek crawling. The suggestion is it sat on a rock or the catenary of chain. Is it likely to be a big job to repair. I would assume it would be stupid to move it any distance on a trailer in its current position, a thin steel plate or some timber would need to go under the roller.
Any advice would be welcome .
Thanks

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

A friends boat has suffered some damage in the keel area, it is a small trailer sailer that sits on a mud berth, and goes creek crawling. The suggestion is it sat on a rock or the catenary of chain. Is it likely to be a big job to repair. I would assume it would be stupid to move it any distance on a trailer in its current position, a thin steel plate or some timber would need to go under the roller.
Any advice would be welcome .
ThanksView attachment 143517

Presumably that's one of two keels on a bilge keeler? If so, my advice would be to get it home by jacking it up on the damaged side and putting a block of wood, or preferably, something like a scaffold board, (with the metal endplates removed), securely in place and then driving very carefully.

 

[William_H]

If it were my boat I would just tow it home as is the load sitting on the lead in the keel. So not likely to do any more damage.
Damage can be repaired with filler I think quite easily. Cut up glass to give more strength. I have repared similar damge on my TS keel many times over 40 years of banging into rocks etc. Mine is also lead inside GRP. No concerns re water ingress so far.
It might be possible to push the boat back on the trailer rollers to get the damaged part off the roller. However be careful about balance of the trailer weight.
If there are multiple load bearing rollers you might be able to remove that roller.
ol'will

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

There is probably some water ingress into the laminate and structure, which would need to be allowed to dry out. Someone will hopefully give some concrete advice on this.

 

[Stemar]

I think I'd put a board under the gap to tow the boat, but wouldn't be too worried about causing further damage.

It looks as though there's a gap between the GRP and the lead. I'd be inclined to grind the GRP back all round the damage, hoping to get to where it's adhered to the lead, but not going too far if I don't get there within a few inches. You need to get back to sound GRP anyway. Wash everything well with fresh water and let it dry, then just build the area up with glass cloth and epoxy. West Systems have a useful how-to here

 

[UK-WOOZY]

looks like just the encapsulation damaged, dry out thoroughly cut around damaged laminate and re-apply fiberglass

 

[SaltIre]

There is probably some water ingress into the laminate and structure, which would need to be allowed to dry out. Someone will hopefully give some concrete advice on this.

If the OP's friend uses concrete it might affect trim.

 

[johnalison]

Do we know that it is lead? Maybe the absence of rust indicates so. I assumed that it was a drop-keel design of some kind but there seems to be some space under the outer glass. I know of encapsulated boats that have added a sacrificial keel to the base and maybe this would help once repaired.