Rust on keel

[Guest]

Fellow antifoulers!

This is my first boat, first winter, first antifoul so would appreciate a little info from "them that know"

My bilge (cast iron?) keel is in pretty good nick but I see a few smatterings of rust around, particularly on the edges and base.

How much rubbing down do I need to do and then what would be the best primer/treatment before I put on the antifoul.

Thanks for any comments/info Paul

 

[Guest]

Paul I am on my second boat with cast iron keels,and have tried a few things my problem is that being on a drying mooring the chain sometimes scrapes the keels removing some of the coating. Up to now i have used a wire brush and sanding disk in electric drill to clean the keels and boating on a budget have tried bitumen (underseal), or red oxide,over coated with antifoul with limited sucsess I fancied using International Primocon but it is very expensive needs a lot of prep, a lot of coats and will still get scraped off, This year I am trying 3 coats of Galvafroid but the keels although rusty dont seem to come to any harm.Good luck

 

[Guest]

If you use NeutraRust 661, you won't have to rub them down as this preparation uses the rust to convert it. It is sold in the UK, but I don't have their phone or address at the moment, though I do have a container of 661 that I have used on the keels of my Konsort three years ago, and no sign of rust re-apppearing.

regards, Philip

 

[Guest]

Owatrol RLS en Primocom

We bought our boat autumn of 1998 and her keel was spotted with rust all over. We brushed it vigourously with a wire brush, applied a coat (in places an extra coat) of Owatrol RLS and 2 coats of Primocom. It's not all that expensive ( if you keep in mind anything to do with boats can hardly be called cheap), only the 1st coat of Primocom (filling the pockmarked surface and smoothing it) takes up a sizable amount of the stuff, the 2nd coat a lot less. Only some spots at the front of it's bottom need some new attention this spring,as we like to explore rivers in spite of our draught of 1.80 m