This is to confirm what Harvey said. That after area where the keel
joins the hull is thin and subject to lateral cracking (athwartship)
such as will occur with hard grounding. From what Jon reported I
would suspect the boat was slammed forward in a similar fashion to a
grounding causing the bow to drop raising the after end and the
resultant weight of the stern cracking this area.
Dave Hoy
WYANOKEE #6295
Camden, Maine
Harvey Rosenberg wrote:
Hi Jon,
It's not perplexing. I've been there. And I've seen another C-27 with
the same problem caused by a grounding. That area of the keel is very
narrow and sometimes will have a void in the fiberglass layup. That
makes the area from the aft end of the keel to the aft end of the sump
area very susceptible to cracks from flexing pressure. The boat has a
natural flexibility. For instance, when my boat leaked while in the
water there was a very small leak. We put it in the slings and filled
the sump with water and you could see the flexing of the hull, and
the crack widened and water came out in greater force then originally
coming in.
A professional ground down the end of the keel and the hull aft of
the keel and repaired it with epoxy. He put a deck plate in the cabin
sole aft of the sump and sloshed it and the sump with epoxy. That
sump is very difficult to get at. The deck plate gives you an idea of
whether water is coming from the aft part of the boat or the the aft
end of the sump, which would indicate a recurrence of the leak. I also
have painted the area with white antifouling paint to make any cracks
more visible.
The repair lasted 17 years and then had to be repeated in a small area.
The second repair was related to a only portion of the 1st repair and
was done with polyester.
I believe my problem occurred during a winter layup when a friend,
thinking my stands were loose, over tightened them, causing hull to
over flex. I now use more than 4 stands, never a bow stand and keep
them somewhat "relaxed".
The other C-27 had a better idea, Not only did they grind it down,
they built the area up about an inch more on each side of the
keel's original layup, resulting in mini keel stub on the aft end of
the keel. When I suggested this to my repair guys they poo poo'd me.
But I think it's the best possible permanent solution.
Hope this helps.
Harvey Rosenberg C-27TR 1985, #6023 M-18, Stony Point NY
------ Original Message ------
Received: Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:57:30 PM EDT
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: catalina27-talk: Perplexing keel problem after long distance
hauling
Listees:
I have a serious but perplexing problem resulting from the
long-distance haul of my 1975 C-27. I need your advice.
The boat was hauled from North Carolina to Boston in mid-July,
essentially a return home for the boat and for us. Somewhere along
the way the boat was damaged. When the boat arrived it was lifted
off the flatbed and put in the water. It immediately began to
take on water--lots of it. After taking it out of the water, we
discovered a crack at the extreme aft end of the keel at the hull
(at the point where the hull begins to curve down to shape the
narrow end of the keel--perhaps an inch or two down that curve).
The crack was only several inches long around that aft end,
perhaps four inches long in all, sort of shaped like a "u". The
leak showed at the inside at the extreme aft end of the bilge in
the passage (under the interior deck) between it and the engine
compartment (boat has an A-4). While the pump kept on top of the
leak, it did so only barely.
A few words about the delivery: The boat had been located on the
extreme aft end of the trailer. A power boat was placed on the
front. The inside of the boat was an absolute mess. Things that I
had carefully stowed were strewn about the boat. Items stowed deep
in the after quarter berth were all over the salon floor in the
forward part of the boat. It was an amazing sight that got worse
when the water seeped up from the bilge. Clearly the boat had a
very rough trip.
When the boat was first on stands, I was able to ply out some
resin from the hull crack and thought maybe I could make a
temporary patch to get it across Dorchester Bay to my yacht club.
I used Marine Tex. The fix looked good, but as soon as the
hydraulic trailer begin to lift it from the stands and blocks, it
cracked with a "snap." It had returned. After a short haul on a
hydraulic trailer to the club, I removed the broken Marine Tex,
opened the crack up as best I could, and we used West (resin,
filler) and some cloth and fashioned a repair. When it was sealed
on the outside, using a flashlight, I was able to locate what
seemed to be a crack of sorts in the bilge in that passage leading
to the engine compartment, where it seemed the water had come in.
I poured resin into it, hoping it would seep down.
Today, when we lifted the boat off the stands to put it in the
water, the same thing happened, a snap, and then a 1/8 in wide,
several inch long crack appeared. This work was done by someone
with a great deal of experience using West resins.
What is going on? The bilge looks fine. Four years ago, I employed
the Catalina Direct keel bolt upgrade and installed ss lags. I did
this only as a precaution because the original bolts looked, well,
rusted, but no worse than other Catalinas. My bilge has always
been clean and dry. I see nothing amiss there now. There is no
Catalina smile on this boat an no other external indications of a
problem anywhere along the keel.
Jon
C-27 1858
