Hurley22 bilge keels leaking

G

Guest

Guest
Help ! Shipping in lot's of the briney. It appears to be coming in at the top of the ballast areas in the encapsalated keels. Plan to check the surface areas of the two keels for holes and in particular the sole areas. There are some rusty bits of iron ballast in the bilges. It appears that the ballast continues above the surface of the hull and up under several lockers in the saloon. Do I need to cut the grp in the lockers to inspect the top of the ballast areas? If these ballast areas are unstable do I have to dig the ballast areas out and how best to do that? Do I have to wash out the keel insides and with what? Will I have to replace the ballast, with what and how best to do? If the keel sole areas are suspect, how best to re-inforce? I get the feeling that this is going to be like "opening a can of worms" PS. I don't like worms.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Sorry, worms it is.

Many older bilge keelers leak through the keels, specially if (a) the keels are attached with a single line of bolts and (b) the keels have been flexed, for example if the boat has been kept on a drying mooring at some time.

You can try patching it either from the outside or the inside, but this rarely works for very long. Its live with it, or have the keels reseated. The cost of reseating depends on the amount of demolition required to get at and remove the keel bolts (which sound as if they may have rusted in). Also the encapsulation won't be the same. If you leave it, the bad news is it will get slowly worse, particular on a hard windward thrash. The good news is that Hurley's were strongly constructed, and I never yet heard of a keel dropping off.
 
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