Has anyone ever heard of a hollow keel cracking from ice?

[Lean Wolf]

I drilled a hole in The Keel this afternoon and the keel was full of water that smelled terrible. The water smelled just like the old lectra sans that I pulled out of the boat which tells me it needed to be done. I drilled the hole about 5 inches above the lowest point in the keel where I could hear that it was hollow. I ran out of time and did not install a flushing system however plan to in the next couple of weeks so that I can run some bleach through the keel to completely kill the smell. As always, thank you everyone for the advice.

[Commissionpoint]

Gotta come up with some kinda solution for everyone here.

I had talked about pouring it full of hard urethane, but never looked into what kinds would be best for the application. I was thinking abot something similar to custom bushings, but in the keel. Dry as a bone keel, blocked really well at the right angle, and make a rubber sluice to the forward pump.

More eggnog. I'll figure it out.

[Cmount]

I have just opened it up on both ends and let the water move around. I dump bleach about once a month and whenever i have left over soapy water i dump it in the back and let it pump out. Most times my bildge runs you will see suds. This year i will do the diaphram pump but there will always be water in the bildge. So to me best to not let it be stagnent water. My take anyhow. I also use the whale pump and that keeps water below the top skin most of the time.

[captainmaniac]

Maybe it's the difference between fresh and salt water. Or maybe your heads or holding tanks are leaking. Or maybe warmer climates breed more smelly bugs in the water. Or maybe a bunch of you are just so full of s**t that it causes your bilge to smell... I have had my '79 F32 for about 14 years now, kept in fresh water its entire life, and have never had any issue with odours from the bilge. I do make sure things are pretty much drained out every fall, but no smell issues.

[comodave]

My F32 has been in Michigan fresh water all of it's life and stunk soooo bad due to the water in the keel. I suspect that yours may have had a better job of glasswork over the hollow keel and so it may not have water penetrating into the hollow keel. Boats are different even though they are built in the same factory. You may have had a little more resin in the keel covering and thus it does not leak. Or maybe the workers put another layer of glass on the covering... Who knows, but fresh water trapped in the hollow keel does stink and I do not think that it has to do with hot weather environment.

[captainmaniac]

My F32 has been in Michigan fresh water all of it's life and stunk soooo bad due to the water in the keel. I suspect that yours may have had a better job of glasswork over the hollow keel and so it may not have water penetrating into the hollow keel. Boats are different even though they are built in the same factory. You may have had a little more resin in the keel covering and thus it does not leak. Or maybe the workers put another layer of glass on the covering... Who knows, but fresh water trapped in the hollow keel does stink and I do not think that it has to do with hot weather environment.

A previous owner had cut a couple of openings through the thin glass over the keel opening, so it has always been open since I have owned the boat. Again, no smells. Maybe it is all about letting the water flow (vs trapped).... maybe the openings I have in the cover layer allow things to breathe enough that there is no issue.

[Big D]

Carefull with using bleach in the bilge, it attacks shaft seals in bilge pumps, greatly reducing their life span. I suspect it's even worse on bellows style pumps as the rubber may not be rated to operate with bleach. Again, it may work for a while but break down much sooner than expected.

[coley girl]

I have a 1974 f32 and noticed after vacing out the bilge that I was not able to get a dry bilge.So Ipulled the floorboards up in the gally area an noticed water pushing up thru the fiberglassmatt over the keel area.after pulling the boat for the season I noted some damage in th keel.So a hollow keel repair sounds more difficult to repair.

[comodave]

Where is the keel damage? If it is on the inside, it is probably not the keel, but rather the thin covering layer. That would not really be a problem if the covering layer is damaged since it is so thin that it does not have any real strength. If the damage is on the outside, then it could be more serious. I had the same thing with moisture seeping up through the keel covering layer. I stuck a screwdriver through the covering and water spurted up about 3". I did not have any damage to the actual keel.

[Commissionpoint]

The keel itself is rather robust. The false cap, not so much.

I still say the boat could be carefully blocked and hard urethane rubber of the proper type could be poured in there to the level of the cap.

Problem solved for any of our lifetimes.