Strengthening a Westerly fin keel.

Suspect there are a lot of hidden horrors in old Westerlys. I wish I had taken photos of a mates Centaur. Bought it knowing there was osmosis but was not prepared to find the whole of the bottom of the hull between the keels was just like the cardboard egg boxes are made of, once the gel coat was removed!

Massive job to take out the floor moulding, build a new bottom to the hull and put it all back together again, together with extra stiffening by way of bilge keels. Nearly 2 years out of commission, including the drying out.

As others have said, often poor design and quality control, hidden by using greater than necessary volumes of GRP.
 
Top