Keel question..

[peter2407]

.... would the line shown in the (hopefully) attached pic worry you? It seems to be cosmetic to me. Keel bolts arent showing any signs of stress. I am wondering if this is a cast issue. Keel is lead having said that. The line runs around the forward end of the keel to approx 30% of the width of the keel.

 

[JumbleDuck]

.... would the line shown in the (hopefully) attached pic worry you?

Yes. I'd be stripping the paint off and testing for cracks.

 

[peter2407]

Damn. Didn't want that answer ... So, strip off the AF with a heat gun, belt sander? What should I be looking for?

 

[JumbleDuck]

Damn. Didn't want that answer ... So, strip off the AF with a heat gun, belt sander? What should I be looking for?

If it's lead I would avoid any scraping in case it masked a crack. I think I'd be using paintstripper. However, I think I'd start by looking up "Non Destructive Testing" in the Yellow Pages and find a local company who specialise in this sort of thing. Dye penetrant testing is my guess.

 

[TimBennet]

I'm not sure what we're looking at with that picture. Have you got any more or other larger ones?

Is that the joint between the keel and hull, or is the lead clad with anything like GRP?

I've never ever seen lead 'crack' as it's far too soft and malleable. So an explanation will be something else.

I would gently scrape the AF away from the area and have a look.

 

[30boat]

Could be just thick paint cracking but you should strip it to the metal to investigate.Lead is not prone to cracking or am I wrong?

 

[peter2407]

I have added another pic to the OP as I forgot how to do it here. ;-)

 

[TimBennet]

The only visible 'line' on the second photo would certainly seem to be the junction between the lead and the hull.

If you look inside the boat, I presume you have a bilge 'sump' under the sole that would go down to within an inch or two of that line?

 

[Robin]

.... would the line shown in the (hopefully) attached pic worry you? It seems to be cosmetic to me. Keel bolts arent showing any signs of stress. I am wondering if this is a cast issue. Keel is lead having said that. The line runs around the forward end of the keel to approx 30% of the width of the keel.

View attachment 49535

Are you really sure this is a lead keel and not a mostly cast iron keel with a lead bottom and the crack is at the join between the two. Some older Jeanneaus for example I believe had various keel options allowing for deeper draught on a racier model of the same boat, ie the race boat version had a taller keel stepped mast and a cast iron keel with an added lead bit on the bottom.



Whatever the answer the main hull/keel keel bolts are not in this area I think.

 

[lpdsn]

Damn. Didn't want that answer ... So, strip off the AF with a heat gun, belt sander? What should I be looking for?

The difficult thing is getting anti-foul to stick to lead (even with etch primer). A bit of gentle scraping should be enough to get it flaking off.

 

[Robin]

.... would the line shown in the (hopefully) attached pic worry you? It seems to be cosmetic to me. Keel bolts arent showing any signs of stress. I am wondering if this is a cast issue. Keel is lead having said that. The line runs around the forward end of the keel to approx 30% of the width of the keel.

View attachment 49535View attachment 49537

Now with the extra pic it looks like it might be the join between the hull moulding stub and the keel, if so, quitecommon to see cracks in the antifoul/paint here and you could if you wish clean back locally (small grinder) and run some sealant into the join area ( mask it off first for a neat finish) then repaint. OR just sand it to fair in and repaint normally.

 

[peter2407]

Thanks all for the responses. I will go down to the boat tomorrow with a tape measure to assess where the crack is in relation to the keel bolts.

I was certainly told the keel was lead, and the original sales brochure described it as lead as well.

 

[Stork_III]

I think you are seeing the hull stub/keel joint. Here is my HR

 

[Robin]

Thanks all for the responses. I will go down to the boat tomorrow with a tape measure to assess where the crack is in relation to the keel bolts.

I was certainly told the keel was lead, and the original sales brochure described it as lead as well.

What boat is it??

 

[JumbleDuck]

I think you are seeing the hull stub/keel joint.

In which case I wouldn't be nearly as worried ... I was assuming before that it was a nice straight paint crack across the metal of the keel.

 

[peter2407]

What boat is it??

This one: http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=3486

I have checked various scandihooligan sites and they all say lead keel - not that I speak said language, I defer to google translate.

 

[peter2407]

Colour of perspiration ..

In which case I wouldn't be nearly as worried ... I was assuming before that it was a nice straight paint crack across the metal of the keel.

I can confirm that perspiration is brown and not particularly pleasant on the nose ...

 

[30boat]

Pretty boat!

 

[Hadenough]

I'm more worried about the state of your finger!

 

[Robert Wilson]

Pretty boat!

+1

I have a similar crack on my Javelin30. After two winter seasons of sanding/scraping back and filling I can see no deterioration and assume (dangerous!) that there is no deterioration to worry about - and sleep quite easily.