Catalina Smile, need repair?

[sailor-cfn]

My Catalina 30 has a set of parallel "cracks" along the top of the keel, at the keel-hull joint. They begin at the aft edge of the keel. I'm pretty sure they have been there as long as I've owned the boat (4 years).

Where the lower crack meet the aft edge of the keel, there is a 1/2 inch "bite" missing. This, I'm pretty sure, is new.

I'm curious if this looked like it needed to be fixed (either the cracks, the bite, or both).

Thanks.

 

[PaulK]

The Catalina smile is at the forward end of the keel. It comes from the keel stub actually separating from keel casting because the hull is twisting up due to the mast pushing down with pressure from the fore and backstays. The gap on your trailing edge looks like filler that has cracked off. It should be re-filled, faired, and repainted. The keel/keelstub crack should probably be reamed out and re-filled, faired and repainted too, though it does not appear to be too horrendous yet.

 

[Zonker]

The Catalina smile is at the forward end of the keel. It comes from the keel stub actually separating from keel casting because the hull is twisting up due to the mast pushing down with pressure from the fore and backstays.

It actually comes from Catalina's horrible no good bad idea of using plywood in the keel stub and then glassing over it. This stiffened up the keel stub when new, but over time, the plywood in the bilge magically gets wet and soggy and the stub loses stiffness. This fall I spent 2 long days digging out the soggy plywood (day 1) and re-glassing the stub interior (day 2). I think most people would take longer by the way if you plan to do it. I had a helper for part of day 1.

I think your lower crack is the keel lead casting/fiberglass keel stub joint. The upper crack is a bit more worrisome if it's into the stub. I'd sand off the paint in both places and see if you have a crack in the glass hull.

 

[mal5033]

My surveyor pointed out the "smile" on my 320 and suggested I torque the keel bolts when it was on the hard.
I did and I haven't seen it since.

 

[slug zitski]

First break out your grinder..remove the fairing compound and have a look

if all looks good …when you repair, add a light fiberglass tape band first, then filler

the fiberglass band of tape helps to prevent the crack from printing thru in future

 

[Zonker]

If the plywood is saturated, torquing the keel bolts just compresses the plywood a bit further and doesn't help too much. I have read G/Flex is a good solution if the joint isn't too far gone. G/flex is quite flexible.

I don't think they used plywood in the stub of the C32 so your surveyor was right.

 

[gptyk]

They quit using plywood on the 30 too. Sometime in the 80s IIRC. 88 maybe?

 

[Hitchhiker]

My surveyor pointed out the "smile" on my 320 and suggested I torque the keel bolts when it was on the hard.
I did and I haven't seen it since.

Your 320 is no olde 30!!

To the OP. Yes, this needs repair. Sea water and steel alloy keel studs do not play friendly with each other.

 

[Gouvernail]

The nice thing about my location is we have fresh water.
When we see cracks like those in the photo, we dig in a bit to be certain what they are, fill the grooves we made, and apply bottom paint.

When the boat needs to be painted again in six or seven years, we look again.

 

[mal5033]

Your 320 is no olde 30!!

My boat is no spring chicken though...it turns 30 this year!

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

My boat is no spring chicken though...it turns 30 this year!

Oh you kids