[Marc]

Morning folks! I finally got round to answering the “why are you removing the keel weights” question… The problem is it’s quite an aggressive and dusty process so cameras are usually left somewhere less hostile! So this is weight 4 of 5… It was the one with the most crud coming out of the drain holes I drilled. The basic removal process is clean the channel so it can slide aft, drive wedges in to separate it from the next weight, use a lever to wiggle it out of the way. In the photos you can see that the sealant/adhesive has completely failed and is full of oily residue from the bilge and 7yrs of rain water getting in, you can also see that the sealant doesn’t encapsulate the entire weight which allowed water to seap past and freeze thaw to finish the job of breaking them loose! Any structural support they gave the keel has completely gone and the oil residue would mean just pumping thickened epoxy in would fail in short order. To fix them I’m grinding the remaining ‘good’ filler back to bare glass, laying up a few layers of polyester resin and chopped mat, then rebedding the weights in waterproof mortar finally glassing over the top to completely seal them away for good and massively increase the rigidity of the keel. That’s it!

Attachments:

1. 

   Concrete-Ballast.jpg
   

2. 

   Holes.jpg
   

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   Keel-Weights-1.jpg
   

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