glass fiber reinforced plastic around the keel

[Stefan]

Hey all,

My sunwind 31 is built in 1984 and has some rust at the keel. Now i'd like to remove it but can hardly understand why there is a layer of GRP around the keel.
Is this a reason of stability? Is it mandatory or can I just leave it when I rebuilt the keel after derusting...or do you think it's just an local area where someone tried to repair something?!
Are your keels packed in GRP??

Stefan

keel with spots of rust

glass fibre!

[panton]

Hej!

Are you sure its glass fibre? Or just the epoxy primer that is on all glass fibre boats under the antifouling. The epoxy is there to make the hull completely water tight and prevent osmosis. Gealcoat is not complete water tight. The iron keel is also covered in the same epoxy so that it should not rust. With time this though happens and therefore the 'bubbling' of the keel.

I have the same problem on my 27. Will grind off the epoxy and treat the keel with new, at the same time i will make the keel more smooth with epoxy filler and sanding it. My first thought are to just grind the parts that are 'bubbling' (and enough around it), and leave the other parts intact.
Sand blasting would be the best, as you do generally not get rid of all the rust by grinding. Or then you can treat the keel after grinding with some rust stopper kemikal, eg. CRC rust converter. This is what i will try. On a old car i hade great experience with a rust stopping chemical of the brand POR (paint over rust).
-grind the keel
-rust converter
-epoxy primer (hempel light primer)
-epoxy filler, sanding
-epoxy primer
-antifouling
Br. peter

[Stefan]

Hej Peter,

maybe you're right! The material is so stiff that i thought off glass fibre. But could also be epoxi primer.
So my plan is more or less the same as yours:

1. Grinding the keel (i'll use the rotating blaster by TERCOO)
2. A layer of epoxy primer
3. epoxy filler
4. Another 4 layers of epoxy primer
5. Antifouling

should be fine.

Stefan