Repairing an old Moody

[john newton]

I recently damaged my 1980s era Moody 36 by hitting a rocky bottom quite hard. I have not yet come at the damage from the inside but the barky suffered a crack at the aft end of the keel and I suspect also some cracks in the floors. I would be very interested to contact anyone who has experience of such damage to this design or to similar boats with bolted on cast iron fin keels.

I have Hugo de Plessis's excellent book "Fibreglass Boats". There are lots of other titles offering advice on repair and I would be grateful for any particular recommendations.

 

[Tranona]

Common issue with that design. Check also that the keel casting itself is not cracked or twisted. Moody Owners Association is your first port of call, but it may also be sensible to find a surveyor who is familiar with the boats.

 

[30boat]

I'm sorry to hear about that.It's not complicated to fix although it will be a lot of work.After buying my boat I discovered it had suffered such a collision in the past and a bad repair had been made.there was a crack behind the keel and the floors that had been glassed to the bottom were woefully inadequate.It's as good as new now.
What I would do in your case would be to remove the keel,place the boat on a cradle and cut off (I never grind if I can avoid it) the laminate around the cracks in a shallow V and rebuild the laminate .The cracked floors would be removed,the area abraded or scraped (better,less dust) and rebuiilt as before.
Then I'd lift the boat and open up the cracks on the outside ,if they show through,and relaminate. Epoxy and rovings should be used not polyester.
In case the damage is not significant the keel may not need to come off but in order to maintain the hull shape the boat should be suspended while doing the work.If the cracks are only on the inside (not likely)you can do the repair with the boat on the water.I've done this three times already once the keel had completely detached from the hull leaving a huge gaping hole.That was in 94 and the boat is still sailing.