Trojan Boat Forum

There have been a lot of postings in the past about hallow keels and how to get the water out of them to eliminate bad odors in the bilge. I guess I'm lucky that I don't have this odor problem to deal with so I've never considered drilling holes or adding pumps to get the water out. It does however make me wonder how much water is in the keel? After 29 years of freezing winters why are there no cracks in the glass from the ice expanding?

Should this space be filled?

I recently bought a '75 36' Tri-Cabin and was noticing that hollow keel with water in it. I was thinking of filling it up with West Marine epoxy to raise up the bottom so water couldn't get down so low & make it easier to dump out with the bilge pump. Any thoughts?

Dave Kane

I did something like that once. When you use epoxy to fill a large area, you can sometimes get thermal runaway. I had heat, smoke, with no way to stop the process. Be careful......

could fill with foam make sure you put a lot of holes on to so the foam has some place to go then glass over the holes

Ecxellent advise! Thank you! If I foam, then epoxy over, I may lay in some metal rods lengthwise to add stiffness.

Wouldn't the foam tend to absorb water after a little time? I've done a few stringer repairs on boats that used foam in the floor for floatation. Every time I found the foam completly saturated with water.

If you epoxy over it . It should seal it pretty well , also use a good grade foam . and if you still got some water in it would you be any worst off ?we did this on a f30 to get rid of a bad smell and its been a few years and been doing fine .

Leave it open and install a diaphram pump with a suction hose on it to pump out the water. That's the way my last boat ('73 Chris Craft 28') came and the keel never stunk up the boat, froze and busted or otherwise caused any grief.