Trojan Boat Forum

Well I am sad, I knew I had the fiberglass work to do but did not know the keel damage was so bad. The following pictures show the rear about 2 feet of my keel, looks like it was damaged via improper blocking or set down hard on a hard object in or out of water. Fortunately these keels are hollow as had been discussed before, here is the proof. Interestingly enough we have bragged on the roven woven strong fiberglass in the Trojans, and that is what is there every where else, but in this keel it is blown in glass fibers and resin. the boat did not leak but found mud in th hollow keel. Am going to first pressure wash in and around the damage, dry then grinda taper around to expose resin. My plan now is to lay up three or four layers of tight weave glassover the damage after placing using resin to hold the shaping piece you see below in its hole. I believe that should be sufficient?







Now all that said and open to any suggestions that would facilitate the repair. this is the next thing that has to be done and by golly gonna gitter done.

I am going to use the below instruction as my guide at least for now, maybe someone has better ideas.

http://oya.com/tips/2009/05/keel-repair-done-right/

Larry , you do have some work ahead of you , there is some de-lamination there . but it can be fixed . The link you have shows how , but I would re glass a larger area . and find a way to get to the back side .

West system has a book on glass repair that maybe worth looking at weather you use west or not .

Two things that are not obvious in the link. You need to cut away all of the unsound material so that your repair has a solid foundation to which to attach. Secondly, you need to grind a taper around the edge of the hole that is left. A 12:1 taper is in order, i.e., a 1/4" thick laminate needs a a 3" wide taper. Any less and you set yourself up for an area of stress concentration, which of course leads to cracking.

You might consider adding a drain for the keel while you are working on it. One thing that is not optional is proper resporatory protection while you are grinding. I have something similar to this: http://www.turbineproducts.com/servlet/Detail?no=2

This model seems downright inexpensive when you consider what glass fibers can do to your lungs. And when you are working comfortably and have clean air to breathe, you can take the time to do a better job. Those white surgical masks with the rubber strap are inadequate for hazards like this. Fresh air will be good to have when you are working with the resin and paint too. Good luck and keep us posted.

resporatory

I mean "respiratory" protection, dang it.

+1

I love the west system. I'm currently repairing mr radar arch using West's. They have a ton of videos and dowloadable PDFs on their site. From experience, be prepared for a very large undertaking.

prowlersfish wrote:Larry , you do have some work ahead of you , there is some de-lamination there . but it can be fixed . The link you have shows how , but I would re glass a larger area . and find a way to get to the back side .

West system has a book on glass repair that maybe worth looking at weather you use west or not .

+1

Thanks guys, I aim to have a very good taper around the repair, and I have a good airfilter mask and will put a fan behind me. BTW it is out in the open air which helps.

Getting to the back side is a problem, obviously I can get to one side from the open side, I think I will purchase or make me a piece to inserto through and pull back tight until the resin cures for my starting layer, I want to use the loose piece as it makes the bottom form correctly.

keep ideas coming, the safety issues I have under control.

The patch as I see it will be much larger than the damage and mostilikely will add some bulge or width to the keel, I think this will be negligible for performance.

More ideas please.