Rust on the Keel

D

DavidBolger

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Messages
161
Location
Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland
www.ladyrowena.net
I have a Sadler 34 with a deep keel (the Stephen Jones design). I dried our before x-mas and I notices that the keel has a number of areas which have rust spots on them. Some of them look like they are just weeping and some of them look more pock marked (spelling?). I antifoul every year and in 2002 I put primacon on the keel?

Can anybody advise me on what I should do to address this rusting problem?

regards


David
 
Hi David, I'm also a (very recent) Sadler 34 owner. Noticed small patches of rust on the keel of mine too. From memory, the surveyor said it needs to be grit blasted, followed by epoxy primer and then antifoul. Think I'll leave it until next year, but a few yards quoted something in the range of £300-400 to do it (once the boat is already on the dry of course).
 
Alternatively, use drill-mounted wire brush on affected areas, apply a proprietary rust killer, then Primocon - then re-antifoul at your leisure. May have to do a bit each year, but cheap and cheerful and keeps most rust at bay. Works for me, anyway.
 
International Primocon is the best solution for either a holding job or a full repaint. The problem with using epoxy on cast iron keels is that even with shot blasting, you never get all the impurities out as the castings are a bit porous, some much more than others, if you do try it you need to paint within minutes of shotblasting.

So you can either wire brush, sand, disc sand or grind locally and touch up with Primocon, or strip the lot off and put 5 coats of Primocon all over. If you do strip/repaint it will last years done properly with a touch up where needed like perhaps along the keel/hull join. I rarely use rust killer because Primocon does that to an extent, but occasionall use it on the hull join simply because it is searching and can flow into the join where paint doesn't reach. The rust killer to use is a liquid rather than a killer/primer, you paint it on, wipe off the excess and paint over it say an hour or so later.

BTW keels hold both heat and cold very effectively and a cold keel is a magnet for condensation, not always easy to see but a sure fire way of getting poor adhesion of the paint job. So a warmish day, rather than a bright sunny one after a frosty night, is best.

Removing old keel paint is fun... Wear a mask and use a scraper like a Skarsten with a long handle for leverage and work on an 'edge' from where it has flaked off. Some people get on well with a Bosch power chisel thingy, others use an old file ground to a chisel at the end. You can use stripper if you have loadsa money, patience and spare overalls. Shot blasting works but you need to be present so you can repaint immediately afterwards.

Cast Iron keels don't rust away BTW so a bit of rust is not destroying your expensive asset but it doesn't look great.
 
Phosphoric acid. It changes rust ( iron oxide) into iron phosphate (ite?) which is very stable. Usually sold as KURUST or Naval Jelly or the like. Car parts shops usually stock it.
 
My other half is doubly mad because we missed the Solheim Cup last year in Indianapolis where she comes from and we won't catch the Ryder Cup this year either. We have had lunch a couple of times at the K Club a few years ago but not played there as it was about £120 then, very friendly though and excellent food. We have played Druids Glen and The European Club a few times though, both are fantastic and Powerscourt too also near you. You can tell I have a customer in Dun Laoghaire...

We don't take the clubs on board but we have rented some in France on our summer cruise, trouble is most clubs are too far from where the boat is and taxifares plus green fees make it costly to play as a visitor, especially as there are two of us to pay for.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top