[Public-List] Encapsulated iron keel

[Rachel]

On Apr 4, 2011, at 3:59 PM, Peter Hurrey wrote:

> Curious if anyone has had any problems with the iron rusting and expanding -
> have not heard of that with the Alberg but it was a problem with the Rawson
> 30, albeit it was iron and concrete. Cheers

I remember reading one (maybe two?) accounts of where someone had had rusting/expansion of the keel.  Obviously that's a small percentage of total A-30's.

One note is that the keel on some (most? all?) of the A-30s is not completely encapsulated.  That is, a token amount of resin/cloth-like-substance was laid over the top, but in many (most? all?) cases it has long ago failed to be a complete encapsulation.  In addition, the after end was shored up with wood and a cementitious material that was then poured over with pure resin, which of course cracked (probably when it was fairly new).  So there are numerous routes for bilge water/oil/whatever to get to the iron pig.

On my A-30 (#221) I dug out all of the "false bilge" material at the after end, plus ground off the failed, thin layer of 'glass on the top of the pig, then I prepped it all and glassed it in "but good" with epoxy and biaxmat to encapsulate it.  The pig in my boat was clean, non-rusty iron in very good condition (boat had been in fresh water all its life and clearly lived with a dry bilge).  The "false bilge" material, on the other hand, was gas/oil soaked and nasty, making the boat smell yucky and causing it to be impossible to get it clean and sweet smelling (until I removed it).  Once it was removed and re-glassed, I gained a cleanable bilge and a small sump for the bilge pump, so it was a win-win for me.

The pig itself is set into a "bed" of the same cementitious material as was used to partially fill the "false" bilge.

Of course I can't speak for all A-30's, but that's how mine was, and I have read a number of other accounts that were similar (plus seen a few on other A-30's I looked at).  I've only looked at the "stick built interior" versions, but if I remember correctly, Don, who rebuilt his "liner" version (but without a liner) might have had a similar bilge.  Don't quote me on that last though (we did compare notes so I could go back and look if necessary).

Rachel
ex-#221



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