Concrete Ballast Sealing

[CurtTampa]

Curious if the concrete ballast is sealed under the sole. My sole seems glued with the ever popular 5200. IMHO 3M 5200 should require a competency/application suitability card/exam/certificate. Any suggestions for removing the sole? Not being able to inspect the space is bugging me. My concern is any water from say a leaking water tank forward or hull to deck joints would find its way down into the concrete. I have read northern boats on the hard can suffer from delamination/bubbles from freezing keel water. How does it get there in the first place?

[skip1930]

On my CP-19 the cabin sole is a piece of thin glued down blue rug with zero padding underneath.  

Glued directly to the bare un-sealed concrete. Not sealed. Not necessary.

If the keel shaped sole is sealed from the top ... how does the water evaporate ? Remember that it is not possible to seal any leak from the 'inside'. Better to seal the water tank and stop dripping water on top of the cement.

Keep the fiberglass around the cement and pig iron keel in perfect condition and it'll be fine.
I only say this because the cement under 'sealed cement' is drying and moving and cracking forever. But what do I know ?

BTW. Cement slowly begins to turn to concrete over the next 88 years ... or so it seems.

Hatco Food Service, second largest employer here in town makes 110 water heating boosters a week [and many other food service products] for restaurants and these are lined with cement [via in spinners] and many have been in service for decades.

And there are only two kinds of concrete. That that has not cracked yet and that that has already cracked !

Worthless side bar; The first cement highway in America was a 12 mile ribbon in Indiana around 1907. Read that printed on an old State of Indiana road map.

skip.

[deisher6]

Hey KurtTampa:
I share your thoughts.

I think that the sole on my '86 is held down by screws.  I think that I have seen the bungs....it also might be glued down.  Way down on my kist of stuff is to refinish/replace it. 

It may be worth your time to give Hutchins a call.  Please post any results.

regards charlie

[Allure2sail]

Hi:
There is really no reason to take up the sole except for a curiosity factor. Under the sole which I believe to be installed with 5200 is the concrete ballast. It does seem to have some pieces of metal mixed in with it (most likely to meet the amount of weight needed). This post is so ironic !!!! I just paid $200 to have mine from the parts boat hauled away to a landfill. I was not about to bust it up with a sledge hammer or rent a jack hammer to do it. To get it out I put a skill saw to the fiberglass of the keel where it merges with the hull. I had the hull  jacked up so the keel was a few inches off the ground. Once the fiberglass was cut off it still would not drop down. Found out that the concrete flares out like the keel and extends a few more inches towards the bottom side of the sole. The sole had already been destroyed so I went into the galley and broke off the flared areas with a sledge hammer and then the ballast dropped down to the ground. Not much left of the boat now after stripping it for the last few years. Have some cabinetry to remove and then I am going to have it hauled away. One of the last project ahead are adding two of the drawers from the galley to the face of the cutout in the v berth for more storage.
Bruce
S/V Allure
Swansea, MA

[Allure2sail]

Hi:
Also wanted to mention that these boats need a drain on the lowest place you could mount one on the side of the keel. You can readily buy them, they are a brass flanged mounted with three screws and a pipe plug in the middle of it. Be fore warned when you take out the plug to drain the water out of the keel RUN man RUN !! It is the nastiest smelling bilge water I have ever smell. I think it may be from the cement and water sitting inside the keel. IT IS NASTY. Just my FYI.
Bruce
S/V Allure
Swansea, MA

[skip1930]

Don't forget that some boats are slurried with cement turning to concrete over a wire form and painted for looks but not for 'sealing'. There is one sitting on the hard in Sturgeon Bay.

Some crazy Englishman sailed a boat made like this to 'The Colonies'.
I'm guessing it didn't sink on the voyage. 

skip.

[Allure2sail]

Hi:
I believe that it is just a straight pour with some metal mixed in with it. I do not know what type of metal it is but some people that have cut into the keel itself have mentioned pockets of rust so I doubt it is marine grade stainless. I once got into a "discussion" on this site about does a cubic foot of rust weigh as much as a cubic foot of steel (before I turns to powder). I'm positively, absolutely, without a doubt not going there again, not even on a dare !!!! Don't even think about it !!!
Bruce
S/V Allure

[skip1930]

Iron is iron, I'm thinking the pig iron that might be used would be those counter weights used in double hung windows found in older homes.
Highly doubt if the iron was ever rolled into a shaped piece of steel like angle or I-beam but rather shaped like ... well, you know what, that's flushed down the potty.

skip.

[Allure2sail]

Concrete sealed question....
No, all that I've seen, including the 2000 lbs which was pretty much intact sitting in my driveway appeared to have no type of sealing applied to the cement at all.
S/V Allure
P.S. I was told by someone on this site it might be scrap metal from their machine shop.
Bruce