Achilles 24
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Achilles 24 |
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Dropping the keel Summer 2004.
Part 1
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While the cabin refit was in progress I was having fun trying to fill the keel at the breach which led to the leak around the aft keelbolt. The keelbolt was replaced and associated repair work done in the winter of 2002/3 (see the link at the bottom of the Achilles 24 Information page for details). We used epoxy filler at the keel but found when we lifted out at the end of 2003 that it had not bonded to the cast iron. There was a hairline crack and after a couple of days ashore water was seeping out, so the filler was removed and the gap left to dry under a plastic sheet taped to the hull. Repeated attempts to fill the gap through the following Spring after many weeks of drying always ended in failure with the filler bubbling.
By the time we produced the bubble above, Zethar had been out of the water for over six months. The likeliest explanation was that there was still moisture in the gap and I had a good idea where it was coming from. In curing the original keelbolt problem we found that there was expanded foam under the grp cabin moulding between it and the hull at the bilge, and the concern was that the leak had let water between the hull and the liner rather than just up around the keelbolt. There were four filled holes on the moulded step for the cabin sole boards. I dug out a plug of filler and there was foam alright, and it was saturated.
So with a wire and a length of rod I spent a day digging out the foam, adding four more holes to improve access. With a length of small diameter pipe on the end of the vacuum cleaner it was a case of dig a bit, suck a bit, and in the end I was satisfied I had got out as much as was possible.
The only area left was under the glassed in limber pipe beneath the cockpit sole. I cut that out to find more wet foam.
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