Keel Repair

water rat

Member
Has anyone used KeelEasy on their sunfish. I have used it on sea kayaks with good success to cut down on hull abrasion . Weight of KE is lighter than a fiberglass strip would be. If you have used it what with did you apply. I am thinking of using it to to cut down on abrasion and cover a fiberglass patch
 
How are you getting so much abrasion?

I would stick with fiberglass. A kayak is a low speed craft the sunfish is much faster and I would not want the extra drag.

Also, if you nick up the glass, it is easy to fix the glass if it is just glass without an extra layer of material.
 
Not my boat yet. Its an early 80's Alcort-AMF in good shape but with a small crack in the keell which can be patched with fiberglass. I was thinking the Keel Strip might reduce drag from the patch as well as protect the keel from beach landings
 
How to Use KeelEazy | Keel Protection for Kayaks and Canoes

The keel is—and needs to stay—a strong part of the boat. That "crack in the keel" probably is bigger and longer than it appears to the eye. It's broken. :oops: It is destined to flex underneath a KeelEazy strip—and get worse! :(

My keel got a 2" bashing, and I ended up with a one-square-foot repair as the hull disintegrated under my sander! :eek: (That's a Styrofoam block underneath the keel). I slipped a fiberglass strip under the damage, and applied several layers of fiberglass cloth and resin, and sanded it to a smooth finish. (And went sailing :)). After winter, when the boat is next seen outdoors up-side down—and the water too cold for sailing—I'll finish my repairing.

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Properly applied, a "fiberglass patch" should produce no drag. Using West Systems epoxy will make it stronger. Cut that keel section out and sand, repair from the back, taper all outside edges to a sharp edge, sand and reinstall as a member Whitecap has—at page 7:
Starting at the BEGINNING | Page 7 | SailingForums.com

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Something tells me this page needs to be saved.

:rolleyes:
 
Keel PROTECTOR strips need to go on before the keel gets ground down.

Once its cracked or ground through the gel coat you need to fix the hull before putting it on.

If the repair is done... the protector strip is sacrificial. You have to grind through it before you get to the hull.
 
Last photo is the first part of the repair. The piece that is cut out is what you will will work with. On the cut-out piece start by applying fiberglass and mat
to the inside. My keel piece was not damaged quite as bad but I built up 6 layers of fiberglass and mat as the keel behind the daggerboard sort of takes a beating
like a skid plate. I made some fiberglass batten strips instead of wood for all four inside corners of the hole. Recess 1/8 deep strip with Dremel around hole and outside
of replacement piece so fiberglass strips securing patch are flush with hull. Epoxy in patch and place weight on top. Finish by applying another layer of Fiberglass and
mat to outside of patch/hull. Fill with epoxy and microballons. Once done you will have a keel section stronger that what came out of the factory. If done well you also
get and mostly invisible repair once the hull is painted as you are using the original keel contour. As a side note this keel is damaged enough that the first layer of fiberglass
may be preformed by putting a piece of wax paper over a good section of the keel and molding a drop in piece.

Shoreline Sailboats Sunfish Hull Repair Method
 

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