fiberglass has become detached from top of keel in cabin

[KCinNC]

Hello all!
New guy here with an old CP16/3.
Please feel free to correct my errors in terminology.

I have recently purchased a '89 16/3 and the only thing i can find wrong so far is that the fiberglass is "loose" on top of the keel in the cabin.
The previous owner told me he had replaced the door to the cabin. It was stored outside. I'm thinking water (rain) may have gotten inside and puddled where you step down to enter the cabin.

It seems solid underneath.

How bad can it be? What would you do?
KC

[romei]

This will prolly make some people in here shudder........

I have an '81 and the fiberglass is also loose in there on mine.  It has been since I got it.  I've done nothing with it yet, but when I do, I intend to cut out the loose stuff with a razor knife, dry it out with heat and fans VERY good, and then with the boat level, pour about a gallon of garage floor epoxy in there and let it level itself out and dry.

[KPL]

Romei-
This will make you feel better...

On my '82, there is no fiberglass, the concrete keel material is exposed.  I brushed away the loose material, and put a piece of carpet over it.  I know I should probably seal it with epoxy or something, but heck, it's sailing season.... Eventually I probably just level it with a touch of self leveling concrete, then seal it with bondo.

It ain't the taj mahal.....

[Steve Ullrich]

The glass over the keel isn't structural but it does, in my opinion, serve a very important function.  It keeps water out of the keel.  In Minnesota, where it freezes to twenty or thirty degrees below zero every winter, water in the keel area can can easily crack up the concrete ballast or perhaps even rupture the keel.  I passed on purchasing one C-16 in Green Bay before buying the one I currently have because the keel was badly cracked.  The glass over the keel on that C-16 was flaking too.  I don't know which came first, the flaking over the keel or the crack.  Water coming in the crack might have expanded and caused the flaking.  I'd cut out the loose glass and use some kind of self leveling material to seal it up.  I used something like that to level the concrete floor under a shower I built in to the lower level of our home years ago.  You can get it at Menards or Home Depot pretty cheap.  I'd also check out the keel pretty carefully to be sure it was solid.

[KCinNC]

HOOOOWEEEE!

We only see 20 to 30 below zero in the Freezers around here. (North Carolina, we whine when is gets below +20 degrees.)
I am in the HVAC/R industry so I have spent a lot of time in -40. Then I have to walk out to the truck and it would be 98 to 100 degrees in the summer.

I am going to cut the fiberglass out this winter. Check it out and reseal.
Thanks everyone.

[NateD]

I don't have any fiberglass on the top of the keel in the cabin either. It looks like there was some fiberglass on it at one point because there is still some of the glass stuck to the bottom side of the berth, but it doesn't look like it extends back past the foam block, which seems strange.



I have a rubber mat that cover the top of the keel, and I usually only have the boat in the water for a few hours, so I never noticed the top of the keel looking wet. I had the boat at a slip for 7 days a few weeks ago and when I got it home I was cleaning it and the top of the keel was very damp. It was raining early in the morning that day and I thought the dampness might have been rain, but nothing else was wet in the cabin (like the berth cushions). Today I was looking the boat over and found quite a bit of damage to the fiberglass on the keel. It looks like the gel coat is completely gone, it's down to the mat.





So what is the next step? Sand it down and patch it with epoxy?

[Steve Ullrich]

Foam block? I don't have a foam block... Is that typical of older Com-Pac 16's?

As for the keel/bottom. A step you might take before sanding is to use a chemical stripper. That will take off 95% of the bottom paint, or better.  Then you won't have such a toxic cloud of dust when you get into sanding it.  Fairing the keel does look like a must do project for you.

I don't have any fiberglass on the top of the keel in the cabin either. It looks like there was some fiberglass on it at one point because there is still some of the glass stuck to the bottom side of the berth, but it doesn't look like it extends back past the foam block...

...So what is the next step? Sand it down and patch it with epoxy?

[CaptK]

Yucko! That's not good.

Regarding stripping the old paint - look for a product named "Peel Away" at your local big box store or Sherwin Williams. It is a non toxic stripper that is supposed to work very well. There is a thread about it at sailFar.net and at the Pearson Ariel owners websites (sorry, don't have direct links to the relevant material handy for you, but a search should work pretty good).

AFA that glass damage - yes, you definitely need a fix. Once stripped, cleaned, and the area around those holes sanded to get a good surface, I would fill those voids with an epoxy/silica mix made up to putty consistency. Basically use that stuff to get back to a somewhat fair and even surface. Then I would wrap the whole repair + some goodly bit extra in a couple layers of at least 6oz glass, finishing with a topcoat of plain resin for smoothness. If you want to see some pictures of that sort of process, check out the Plastic Classic Forum - lots of boat repair photos and tutorials over there.

Pretty involved job, but not too terribly difficult - mostly you'll find it time consuming. But afterwards you won't have water entering the boat!

[Steve Ullrich]

Nate - I found a non toxic citrus stripper at Menards that, like Peel Away, removes multiple layers of paint in one application.  I read a lot of good reviews about Peel Away but went cheap...

Before:

After stripper:

Sanding/stripping, a little of both going on:

After sanding:


Good luck with the project.  Call if you end up needing extra hands or a random orbital sander or something.  I don't go back to teaching until after Labor Day so I have a couple of weekends free yet.

Steve
BTW: Nice avatar you have there CaptK. Compels me to put my own pirate back on line for a while.  

Yucko! That's not good.

Regarding stripping the old paint - look for a product named "Peel Away" at your local big box store or Sherwin Williams. It is a non toxic stripper that is supposed to work very well. There is a thread about it at sailFar.net and at the Pearson Ariel owners websites (sorry, don't have direct links to the relevant material handy for you, but a search should work pretty good).

AFA that glass damage - yes, you definitely need a fix. Once stripped, cleaned, and the area around those holes sanded to get a good surface, I would fill those voids with an epoxy/silica mix made up to putty consistency. Basically use that stuff to get back to a somewhat fair and even surface. Then I would wrap the whole repair + some goodly bit extra in a couple layers of at least 6oz glass, finishing with a topcoat of plain resin for smoothness. If you want to see some pictures of that sort of process, check out the Plastic Classic Forum - lots of boat repair photos and tutorials over there.

Pretty involved job, but not too terribly difficult - mostly you'll find it time consuming. But afterwards you won't have water entering the boat!

[TeamSlacker]

Something else to think of Nate. I've read a few times in the past here, when people get water in the keels, they drill a hole or two in the bottom of the keel to let all the water drain out before doing any repairs. If you have any water in there this winter the freeze will crack up the concrete and/or FG around the keel.