PocketShip.net

Hey everyone,

After a great weekend on the water, I happened to look underneath the boat (as I had some run-ins with various trees and floating wood along the way), and noticed that the front bottom of the keel was really getting worn down. At least I didn't see any damage from the various pieces of trees collisions.

Would appreciate any ideas on the best way to fix and prevent future rubbing of the front of the keel on the trailer keel trough. I'm sure I had at least two layers of glass there, which has now been entirely rubbed though in one are, and getting really thin in the forward 6" or so. Based on a fingernail test, it appears the surface of the wood it is still saturated in epoxy, so seems I caught it just in time.

One can image a lot of friction as the boat is floating flat on the water, and when being pulled onto a slopped trailer, all the load is directly applied to the front of the keel as it is winched up those final few foot onto the trailer. Also, this area is almost right below the bulk of the lead placed below the floor boards.
Anyone else notice this happening as well?

Repair thoughts:
1) Add 1-2 layer of glass and try to feather in?
2) some sort of graphite bottom?
For those in the building phase- anyone have a scrap section of glass/graphite they can send me?

Prevention:
1) seems backing the trailer further in the water, or not launching at shallow ramps would help.
2) apply a lubricant to the forward part of the keel trough to minimize friction?

Thanks all,
Sean






P.S. on more happy topics, a few pics from the weekend cruise
https://buildingpocketship.wordpress.co ... ction=edit

I epoxied on a sacrificial keel shoe forward and aft of the centerboard slot. I used 1/2 inch thick piece of Iroko (poor mans' teak) for that purpose and faired it into the keel after fully glassing the keel. Before attaching the shoe I glassed the nose block area with no less than 10 layers of 6 oz glass, followed by a couple layers of Dynel for abrasion resistance. Then, went on the shoe. The first photo shows the keel shoe over the nose block area before it was faired in. The second shows the shoe on the keel aft of the center board slot. The idea is that I can plane it smooth and epoxy more on as the shoe wears down (hopefully a long time from now - as it won't be fun). The shoe has the added benefit of keeping the centerboard slot raised off of the trailer's keel trough a little.

Hi Sean,

Are you still in Minnesota? If so I'm fixing the bulkhead problem on the Charles B. Haertl right now and have some left over Kevlar cloth and graphite powder you can have. Another idea that was mentioned by someone (don't remember who) for reinforcing the nose block is to sand a flat spot on the front and use rope soaked in epoxy to prevent wear on the front. I'm down in St Bonifacius if you want to pick things up.

Chris

Hey Sean,
I like Bflats idea of the keel shoe, but I am curious as to what is causing it.
Do you have any rollers on your trailer? The way the keel looks is that it is an even wear.
I wouldn't think carpet would do that much damage, but I guess over time it could.

Thanks
Ron

Thanks for the ideas guys. With some fiberglass and kevlar courtesy of Chris, I am all set to add some more armor down below. I do want to try to add a roller to the leading edge of the keel trough, I think that would help a bit. Otherwise, I think backing into the water just a bit more will help as well during future launching. Now I just need to find some time and enough warm weather to finish up this fall.
-Sean

My advice, for what it's worth, is to replace the bottom board of the trough with rollers. That's what I've done and now I can easily inspect the keel and centerboard and make minor repairs if necessary while the boat is on the trailer. The keel rolls on the rollers instead of rubbing on the carpet. I am surprised to learn, though, that it was damaging your keel. Are you sure it is not being damaged by hazards in the water, or rubbing on the bottom?

If you decide to add the rollers, they are $40 each from Trailex, including mounting brackets. You need two, and will also need special mounting bolts so you don't have to dissasemble the trailer to mount the rollers. Also be sure to leave the trough's side boards in place to guide the keel.

All this is explained along with photos on my post from last year, "Modifications to Trailex Trailer."

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I like the roller idea, but went with the easy option of adding a couple layers of fiberglass and kevlar to the front of the keel. For the repair, I moved the wench stand forward a bit, so the keel typically sits a few inches back from that in the photo. Thanks to a warm late fall, got it done before the snow came, and so far so good this spring.

As far as the cause, I believe it is due to the edge of the board/carpet. When loading and unloading the back of the boat will be floating, so all the weight of the boat will be concentrated to the very front of the board/keel, where the carpet will only be able to soften the wear so much. For now, I am backing deeper into the water to minimize the wear, but a roller at the very from of the board should the long-term answer, just need to figure out what roller and how to support it...
-Sean

Here's a shot of my noseblock:

As you can see there's some wear on the bottom, but this is due to ramming into rocks and such when trying to beach. About the only damage is to the paint, except for a small area where it rubbed through to some of the dynel cloth. I purchased a rubstrip kit CLC sells for their kayaks and applied the included dynel and epoxy mixed with graphite. (It's a little hard to see the roller in the lower left corner, partly because my fat finger is getting in the picture and partly because there is white paint on the roller--I have done some re-painting on the noseblock.)
I believe the rubstrip kit has helped quite a bit, but I think the use of rollers on the trailer instead of a keel trough is also a factor. That being said, we also have fairly steep ramps here in Oklahoma, so that may be allowing the boat to float up further onto the trailer before it puts a lot of weight on the keel. It's also possible you have sailed your boat more often. I finished my boat in October of 2014 and sailed her as much as I could until December 10, then started sailing again in April of 2015. I wish I had kept a log, but I'm sure I sailed at least 30 or more times that summer and at lest 20 in the summer of 2016 before I damaged her. I've put in around 10 or 12 sails so far this year.