Keel damage

[HvacPro]

Hey guys, need some advice. This must have happened near the end of last season, never noticed it till I was walking around the boat this afternoon.

got some damage on the keel, we have a lake full of drifting debris, must have caught something I didn’t see or hear, although by the looks of it you would think I would have noticed it.

how should I repair this?

 

[Neutron]

I doubt its from hitting debris. Looks like it was grinded off over time.
Do you beach the boat ever?
I would suggest after its repaired, put on a keel guard.
And if you do install a keel guard it doesn't have to look factory pretty. Because it will be covered up

 

[HvacPro]

I would agree with you, but I bought it used (was not there when I bought it last summer) and we put about 15 hours on it last season.
Never beeched it, but that’s why I noticed it, been thinking about taking the kids camping on one of the uninhabited island on our local lake, was thinking about putting a keel guard on on in case we do that. That is when I noticed this ?. Any advice on repair. The main spot looks like I’ve lost some fiberglass, probably not all that much but definitely a couple layers. The long run looks like it’s just the gel coat.

 

[Bruce]

I would take her to some fiberglass repair shops and see what they recommend.

At minimum the gelcoat needs to be replaced with gelcoat or epoxy. Spectrum's color matched product would be a good choice for the gelcoat. But those hulls are thin so I would want to make sure that any fiber that needed to be replaced was replaced and that the remaining fiber is solid.

@Glassman are you still around?

 

[Neutron]

I would agree with you, but I bought it used (was not there when I bought it last summer) and we put about 15 hours on it last season.
Never beeched it, but that’s why I noticed it, been thinking about taking the kids camping on one of the uninhabited island on our local lake, was thinking about putting a keel guard on on in case we do that. That is when I noticed this ?. Any advice on repair. The main spot looks like I’ve lost some fiberglass, probably not all that much but definitely a couple layers. The long run looks like it’s just the gel coat.

How well and close did you inspect the keel prior to buying it. Its black and it could have been a crappy repair or just painted over some epoxy and it came off easy

 

[HvacPro]

I looked it over pretty good, I feel like I would have seen it, but then again it’s a 24’ maybe I missed it.

 

[swatski]

This looks a bit more involved than the simplest gelcoat paste repair, but doable in DIY settings, if followed by KeelSHield or KeelGuard.
I would agree with @Bruce - a good shop would make it look like new again, and you wouldn't need to worry about structural issues.

To me, this is NOT a beaching type damage, no way.
The edges of the damage are sharp (red arrows) and the gelcoat around it is pristine (green arrows).
This looks like it was scraped off of a hard surface, maybe a concrete ramp contact, or scraped against a rock/concrete structure?


Definitely NOT a log, or anything floating.

It could also be from hitting a crossmember on a lift, some of them have cross beams going across and those need to be adjusted, but even than it is possible to hit and scrape the keel like in your picture - if coming in hot and "breaking"/slowing down at the last moment etc.

If the boat was stored on a lift with galvanized cross-arms, or aluminum I-beams, that would be my bet - regarding what's happened.

--

 

[HvacPro]

Ya I have no idea what happened, I actually wish I did to make sure it never happened again. I’m very cautious with it. Since I’ve had it trailered only. No lifts, closest she’s been to concrete is on and off the trailer. Never hit anything (not the first boat, no problems getting on and off) That would be the only place it could have drug concrete, is that possible? Totally stumped on where I got it from. I’ll try and run it to some shops tomorrow to get there thoughts. Definitely don’t want a structural problem to come from not doing it right

 

[HvacPro]

Any idea what I might be looking at to have this shop repaired? I know it is what it is… just want to have an idea how loud my wife is going to holler at me

 

[tdonoughue]

So a few things...

First, I agree this is not beaching damage. Does look like a hit, but on something flat. Hard to say what, of course, but you hit it square on to get it nice and flat like that. So it would be a ramp or submerged dam or wide rock... I was surprised a couple of years ago this time of year bringing the boat home for a wash and found something larger like this on the bottom--never even knew I hit anything. When you are going 40-45 and skim something, you will never feel it amongst the wave action and other bumps of going that quickly.

Second, the hulls on these boats are very thin. That is good in that they are light and inexpensive. It is bad when you hit something. The Spectrum is good for a DIY for damage that is just to the gelcoat (before you hit the glass). Once you hit the glass, you need to grind off all of the damaged glass until you hit smooth glass. Then you need to build up the glass again before you apply new gelcoat.

However.

If you go all the way through the glass, then you have a structural issue. The difficult part is that 'going all the way through the glass' is not that you can see all the way through the boat. It means that the glass is damaged (cracked, etc.) all the way through. To make matters more difficult to determine, there is foam on the other side of the glass in our boats. So you are not looking for a hole; you are looking for foam (or for something that is cracked that when you grind it off you are to foam). That means that you cannot always tell by looking if you have damage that is all the way through once they grind for a repair. If you do, then to repair it properly you need to go in from the inside of the hull to lay up the glass properly before you then lay up on the outside of the hull (and then put on the gelcoat). That is because a through-and-through impacts the structure of the fiberglass.

Unfortunately, I fear yours is all the way through. I see in the middle of the damage a slightly different texture. That, I think, is where you are starting to get to foam. I would say that the advice to take it to a pro is the best one here (and I am a big DIY advocate, so that is the last thing I want to recommend to you, but I need to here).

Repair costs will vary, of course. I had a bigger area, off to the side of the hull, but they were able to reach it through the gas tank compartment (had to cut the compartment, then repair the compartment, too). Total bill was $5k. Insurance covered a good part of that (but that is what insurance is for, right?). I would hazard a guess you are probably looking at just below that ($4k?), but it will depend on where it is on the hull and how easily they can get to the inside (assuming they do need to go in that direction to repair it).

Good luck and let us know your next steps!

 

[Jimmers]

That’s an easy $3000.00-4000.00 repair. Probably needs more repair than an untrained eye can see. Water has no doubt soaked into the glass/resin and if you simply gel coated it you would trap all moisture in there. The glass also probably fractured and spider webbed with damage extending below the surface for several inches under what appears to be undamaged gel coat. If you have freeze/thaw cycles you could have considerably bigger problems down the road. I would recommend a professional repair. Good luck!

 

[ross l]

Any idea what I might be looking at to have this shop repaired? I know it is what it is… just want to have an idea how loud my wife is going to holler at me

Get it fixed yet? What was the repair bill?

 

[gthh]

Whew, that boat is shiney!

I had a similar scrape. It came from the concrete launch I was using on a public dock on Cayuga Lake in New York State.

When I pulled the boat out of the water I heard a scrape and thought it was the cross member of the trailer-I was wrong.

Fortunately it did not cost much to repair and I followed up with Keel guard.

About 7 years later I made the same mistake but the Keel guard took the damage. It tore up the keel guard and I had to replace (covered under Keel guard warranty-thanks Keel guard!!!)

Another boater that pulled in next to me had a similar (30' Bayliner) problem. He said he has used this launch many times without any issues.

It must be the water level or how your boat is loaded that caused the boat forward section of the hull to get damaged when pulling the boat out of the water.

So your solution is the Keel guard. Why Yamaha does not install these on our boats is a shame but lesson learned.