Keel damage

[Rolias]

Several years ago my DS1 #795 broke loose from its mooring and ran ashore during a storm. Before it could be rescued the keel from about 1 foot back of the bow to just before the cb was stove in and ground away...intreptid owner and adventerous handyman that I am, I attempted repairs with modest success since I only felt comfortable working from the outside in since I did not want to mess with the keelson....got some sailing in finally this summer...still had to use a bit of waterweld and was planning on addressing the issue over the winter. When it came time to trailer Rolias, my son's face fell along with mine as we heard nasty crunching sounds as the keep passed over the center rollers! Upon inspection, most of the glass and fill I had worked into the repair, cracked and fell away !!! So I am again faced with major work. My initial questions are: 1) Can I safely cut open the keelson so that I can reach the inside of the hull above the keel and then patch the keelson? 2) What would a boatyard liekly charge to relieve me of the burden and 3) should I even bother.

[algonquin]

I am very sorry to hear about your boat and your repair situation. Although you could tackle this project again and rebuild from the inside out you may want to “consult” a pro first for advice. I guess that’s what you kinda of doing with this post. I personally wouldn’t hesitate tackling the job but would know going in that time is valuable and in short supply. If you have the time to put into it to get it right and the funds to by quality material is the question. This type of repair really should be done by rotating the hull so you can get in from every angle. To have this hired to a boatyard would certainly cost more than the hull is worth. It is a shame to scrap an old antique hull but a replacement hull can be found fairly cheap. Most likely far cheaper than a pro would charge to repair your current one. Brad

[K.C. Walker]

Wow, that's a tough one. Anything is repairable at a price. I think I would 2nd Brad's opinion. Take it to a GOOD boatyard that does fiberglass work and get an estimate. These guys are pros so they can do it much faster than you can. Figure it will take you at least 4 times longer to do the work than what their estimate is. As Brad said, you could probably buy another boat cheaper. It's pretty easy to rack up $500-$1000 in materials.

KC

[GreenLake]

It's always bad to see your repairs disintegrate. However, I'm a bit surprised at your experience. I would be interested to find out a bit more about the details of the damage and what you did to attempt to repair it.

In particular, you specify the fore/aft extent of the damage but not how far it extended to the width of the hull. A series of pictures might help to get a better understanding of what you are up against. Also, if your repair came apart, I wonder why. Did you only go as far as getting the hull watertight, in other words, largely a cosmetic repair? You also mention "fill". What areas did you fill and with what?

What did you do to anchor you repair?

Like you, I would have expected a better result from repairs, so I'm curious whether there's something "obvious" in the way you went about it that could be improved, before I'd join the chorus and agree that this kind of damage really can't be fixed with reasonable effort.