[Alberg30] Keels

[Brian and Elaine Timmins]

I'm not sure if that gray powder is cement or not, but I've run into it also. For the first three winters that I've owned her and kept her on the hard, by spring I always had a gray wet dripping coming from the forefoot area of the keel. Every year I would put some sort of sealer or epoxy over the area and I still had the weeping the following winter/spring. Winter 99/2000 I decided to FIX it finally. I stripped her down in the area and found a couple of small cracks. I ground out the area and drilled holes to air out the wetness. The holes I drilled went into a void that had WET gray sand-like stuff. The stuff I encountered wasn't cement since it never hardened up. The void area I encountered is underneath the interior fiberglass ballast cover in the fore cabin. My boat is #497 with liner. The fwd cabin has a floor hatch that lifts out and about 6-8" under that is what I'm referring to as the fiberglass ballast cover. To finish the story with minimal detail, I filled the holes, fiberglassed over the area, faired it out, put on a barrier coat, painted and launched. Winter 2000/2001 had no "Grey Tears" coming from the hull, so I guess I fixed it.
   I'm not sure if anyone other than a Whitby employee will know what that gray stuff is. I figure it was (is) just a space filler to secure the iron shot, balls, ingots or what have you that makes up our ballast. If your gray sand is dry, be sure to seal the hole completely and be glad your ballast isn't water logged. Also, if you drilled your hole aft under the engine and I drilled forward at the forefoot and we both got the gray stuff, that must mean the ballast area goes all the way between.
Regards, Brian
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Peter Amos 
  To: public-list at alberg30.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 5:51 PM
  Subject: [Alberg30] Keels


  I drilled a small hole in the interior surface of the keel below the engine, to take a screw for fixing a bilge pump switch. I was surprised at how thin the fibreglass skin is at this point. The bit came out with a dry grey powder on it that looked like cement dust. Was dry cement used in the ballast area,if so why?
  Randy's query about a foam filled area in the keel and cracks when blocked may have solved one of my problems, an untraceable leak while motoring or sailing.Much less when anchored.Not shaft,cooling system, rudder tube, through hulls or bilge pump outlets too near the waterline.
  If a hole can be drilled in this foamed area, if there is one in the A 30, exactly where should it be?
  Peter Amos
  Tait Tait #478
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