Soda Blasting, Barrier Coat and Keel Repair

[JD5652]

Our blast had some poor timing... We got a pretty heavy storm so now I have a mess of green mush under the boat... I got her prime coated today but what a friggin mess... ...

Deep -

I'm surprised that the marina did not require the soda blast guy to remove ALL after effects of the blasting. With the new EPA regs, all marinas up our way require the soda blast contractors to remove EVERYTHING from the blast zone...including old paint, blast product, etc.

thats good news jd. i would be curiouse to see how they go about repairing it.

Rob-

I'll post up here what Ocean recommends as a repair. For everyone's benefit, here's the recommended blocking plan from Ocean.Note that the diagram is for a 42' and should be appropriately scaled up or down as needed.

[Deep C]

They got most of it except the puddle thats basically under my running gear... Five 55 gallon drims of crap they did get and haul... Its dryung up some now so tomorrow they might be able to get the rest...
Yes the EPA is on us down here like stink on chum... To make it worse... The guy that had "the yard" franchise and mechanic franchise for oir marina recently got in a pissing contest and left the marina. Law suits and crap flying all over... Then his wife has been calling the dogs out everytime someone leays a paint brush down...

[RiffRaff]

JD, sorry to see they damaged your keel. Please post the updated pics when available. I did have a small crack in my keel when it was hauled last, took some time to dry out and the repair seemed to be minimal, now I am worried. Do you have any blisters? Keep us posted.

[JD5652]

JD, sorry to see they damaged your keel. Please post the updated pics when available. I did have a small crack in my keel when it was hauled last, took some time to dry out and the repair seemed to be minimal, now I am worried. Do you have any blisters? Keep us posted.

Riff-

Did you check the surrounding area of the crack for deterioration prior to repair? I was told by Ocean to drill holes about 1/2" deep about 12 inches on either side of the crack to aid in the keel dry out process and check for additional deterioration. I was told that the keel is foam filled.

I had no blisters whatsoever. A few small areas that need to be filled an faired, but no blisters. The Ocean guys attribute the lack of blisters to their use of vinylester resins in the hull layup process. Not sure if that's the case, but the bottom is in pretty good shape for a 20 year old.

I'll post up here any/all updates throughout the process.

[RiffRaff]

JD, I did check the repair and it looked fine to me, the yard did open it up and let it breathe for a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will be ok. Good news that you did not have blisters, I was not that lucky, but I knew I had them when I bought the boat!

[JD5652]

So here's the recommendation from Ocean on how to repair the keel. I would appreciate feedback from those of you that are fiberglass experts especially if you've performed a keel repair on an Ocean before. Thanks and Happy Holidays!

(1) Depending on how pronounced the crack is, drill 5/16”-3/8” holes into the keel. Recommend drilling 6-12” fwd and aft of the crack and 12”-24” above the crack depending on how pronounced the crack is now. Do not drill all the way through the keel from port to stb but rather inspection holes 1” deep or so to allow any absorbed water to drain. Recommend letting the keel dry out over the winter and repair the fiberglass in the spring.

(2) When addressing the crack in the spring, use a die grinder or a D.A. sander with heavy sandpaper. You want to open up the crack without loosing the shape of the keel.

(3) Next fill the 5/16” or 3/8” inspection holes with polyester putty.

(4) Ocean uses St. Gobain-Vetrotex fiberglass mat. Overlap and stagger 2415 fab mat over the crack. Cut the mat in 12”, 14”, 18’’, and 24’’ pcs. Start out with the 12” pcs and build up to the 24’’ pcs.

(5) The type of resin to use below the waterline is vinyl ester resin. Ocean uses a vinyl ester resin made by Interplastics Corezyn and the part number is MVR8031LH-15.

[g_max_2003@hotmail.com]

Deep -

I'm surprised that the marina did not require the soda blast guy to remove ALL after effects of the blasting. With the new EPA regs, all marinas up our way require the soda blast contractors to remove EVERYTHING from the blast zone...including old paint, blast product, etc.



Rob-

I'll post up here what Ocean recommends as a repair. For everyone's benefit, here's the recommended blocking plan from Ocean.Note that the diagram is for a 42' and should be appropriately scaled up or down as needed.

greg

Thanks for the info rob cuz i hav the same problem with the ocean 38. The last 3 to 4 feet of the keel is damaged so we hav the boat on 2 keel blocks placed faorward of the damage an then the boat is bein mainly supported by 10 jackstands

[Bligh]

Go back to my original post where I told you about your keels construction. As far as your keel repair according to ocean? If you drill those inspection holes, thats good! But Dont put polyester putty or filler back in the holes!!! Your just repeating oceans cheap hull practice! Mix that vinlester resin that ocean recommended to wet out fiberglass {fabmat????} with cabisil and make your own water proof putty. than sand back an area and layer 1708 biaxi al glass and vinlester resin out to surface same with repair 1708 or even a lot of layers of 12 or 1308 glass is going to be stronger than that cheap 2415 fab mat????? Back to keel blocking a ocean? Only at the sling points are you safe! the other areas have low density wood chips and polyester resin thrown in there. I had mechanics tell me they got sea sick in the engine room on the mullica river during start up trials on new boats. Hence Flexible Flyers. you get a lot for the money with an ocean but remember the same size viking made down river was a lot more money and a lot more glass and resin!

[JD5652]

Now that the weather has finally broken, the keel repair has started. One thing is for sure....the previous repair on the keel was a total POS. It is now obvious that the previous repair did not seal the keel and water has been soaking up into the foam fill for some time.

The fiberglass guy was able to simply peel away the previous patch job. It was evident that the area around the repair was not prepped properly since there was still bottom paint underneath the repair. Once all the old fiberglass was peeled away, out came the sawsall and well....the pictures tell the story.

The wet foam will be dug out and the keel internals will be allowed to dry. The fiberglass guy says that he plans to build a frame around the area and them fill in that part of the keel area until it's solid fiberglass.