Lead Keel vs Iron

[Guest]

Please can some one advise me - do lead keels corrode ?

I'm considering upgrading my next yacht purchase to a lead keel to avoid the corrosion problems on my previous yacht's cast iron keel. Although I could deal with the majority of the weeping rust without issues on the side of the keel and the upper & side elevations of the bulb, I couldn't get to the underneath of the bulb whilst it was sat on its cradle as it was in contact with the ground. Given this situation, I was never able to treat any rust, seal it and anti-foul it to my satisfaction before it was craned back into the water.

The boat will be used in sea-water.

 

[ccscott49]

No problem with lead, no corrosion! Bloody expensive though, but you can have a physically smaller keel, which has to be good.

 

[Guest]

Colin,

Thanks for your reply - informing me that lead won't corrode. As you say - its expensive alright .... but still rather appealing now I know it aint going to rust away !

Regards,
Steve

 

[PeterGibbs]

Oxidation of lead is not a problem as it is for iron keels.

Much fuss is made about having the keel in absolutely the best shape for sailing - think of the speed losses, we are told. The facts are that sails of any vintage are infinaitely more taxing to a boat's perfromance than a few patches of irrugularity where rust has affected the keel's surface. A big outlay for lead over iron is probably not worth it for most cruisers.

With iron it pays ( I speak from experience) to really get back to bare metal and immediately fill the crevices and apply the protective paint, then primer etc. This normally gives several seasons of pretty fair keel surface.

The odd bit of rust discolouration is no problem - except if on the keel / hull border when it might be a tell-tale for water ingress beyond the keel. When the paint flakes a little on the keel proper, just brush back to metal apply the primer to overlap the a/foul and repaint. Over enthusiastic application of antifoul soon leaves it layering like crazy - it doen't need it - it's several feet underwater where most fouling activity is weak (save if the area is heavily barnacled - I grant you!)


PWG

 

[Guest]

For your consideration, I treated the rusted keel of my boat like that 5 years ago :

Clean up the rust, sand the keel and then seal it with GRP. Of course, the GRP near the keel needed to be peeled off a bit to give ground for linking with the cover layer. This makes the boat stiff and no more rust to deal with.

Cost ? 750 GBP, done by boatyard.