[Alberg30] Keels

[RABBIT649 at aol.com]

I own #23 and this is what I know about the keel and the area of which you 
speak:
    1)I can't speak for later boats, but it has always been my understanding, 
corroborated by the experience of exposing the iron ballast in the rear, that 
the ballast is not "iron shot, balls, ingots or what have you", but a solid, 
cast, single, shaped piece of pig iron.
    2)  Exploring the area under the engine that is the deepest area of the 
bilge at the very aft end of the boat, at the 'heel" that holds the shoe for 
the rudder pin, I discovered an area where the covering over the "ballast" 
was cracked and holding oil and bilge water. When I went to remove the 
covering, it proved to be, not fiberglass at all but an area of something 
like Thoroseal Hydro sealing cement in which was embedded, as a filler or as 
a spacer, a 14" piece of 2 x 4 common house stud. It was a work of days 
getting all this structurally extraneous material out of there, but when I 
finished, I found I had exposed the very rear of the pig iron ballast, which 
at that point had maybe an 8 " high x 4"wide cross section, and behind it, 
that is between the rear of the ballast and the rear of the boat, an empty 
area in the shape of a slice of cake about 18" long, 8" high, 4 or 5 inches 
at its widest near the ballast and tapering to an edge where it met the 
inside of the rear edge of the boat where the rudder attaches. I actually cut 
and shaped a series of  1" oak "layers" to glass in to fill it up and then 
thought better of it because of what they say about oak not being a good bond 
with glass because of the acid and not holding up against rot. So, at the 
moment,  the boat remains on the hard,  and my plan is to collect scraps of 
fiberglass and old resin and fill it in.
The only pause I have is over the cementitious material in which the iron is 
bedded. Having exposed the rear cross section, as I said, I notice that there 
was a half-inch of cement around the ballast between it and the inside of the 
hull. I'm a little concerned about sealing moisture in with the cement, 
because this cement-like material is porous and the water in it will expand 
when frozen and, I fear, rust and bust the iron ballast out through the hull 
somewhere. With only that half inch cross section exposed, it's hard to know 
how to dry it out.
Any suggestions?
By the way, I know nothing about the area in front of the ballast, but I 
believe there are no 'false parts' of an Alberg 30's hull, and no foam used 
in the earlier ( linerless, original mold) boats.
Paul 
#23 Ashwagh 


In a message dated 6/20/01 8:11:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
timmins at optonline.net writes:

> 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
 +------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | Simrad TP20 w/ FREE remote, on sale at Sailnet. Search "SIMTP20" |
 |    http://www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/sailnet/t.asp?id=1066     |
 +------------------------------------------------------------------+

_______________________________________________
Public-list mailing list -- Public-list at alberg30.org
http://www.alberg30.org/mailman/listinfo/public-list
To unsubscribe: email to Public-list-request at alberg30.org
Include command "unsubscribe <password>" in subject or body.
Use command "help" for more options.

 993102817.0