"rebel" wrote in message
...

"DSK" wrote in message
...

Paul Oman wrote:
my suggestion would be a high pressure water jet - water
blaster -enough
pressure
and enough water and all the expanded rust would, I think, come off and
fall out
of the trunk

Now that's a pretty good idea. The mess might be easier to deal with and
easier to avoid cutting away too much fiberglass.

Derek Lawler wrote:
I had thought of selling the boat as is and getting another. I happen
to
love the design of this boat and its layout.

Well, it's a Halsey Herreshoff design.


... With the board up it seems to go in
water that seems impossibly shallow and is great for Keys back country
gunkholing.

Hush! Relatively few people appreciate the benefits of shallow draft, I
don't want all the best anchorages spoiled!


What I did think of doing is simply caulking in the keel, fixing it in
place
and dealing with the problem after using is as a motor sailor for a
while,
sailing mostly off the wind.

If you're going to do that, why caulk it? Just leave it.

... I also thought of simply using the keel as
inside ballast and welding a fin on the bottom of it. Does sound a bit
sloppy though.

Yep... and you'd have to "Rust Never Sleeps" on the stereo a lot.

Try the water jet idea... I regret not thinking of that myself... and if
all else fails, go ahead and cut the trunk out. That way you can rebuild
it properly, upgrade the pivot bearing & lifting gear, and really finish
up the job properly.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King
//////////////////////
Another point, have you ruled out the control being rusted up, if the
cable
is rusted theres no way it will move, unless detached.



I've been sitting back watching this - just have to comment. Assuming that
the pivot and controls are free, then the thing is stuck because the rusted
plate is bigger than the trunk - hence it won't move. Rust is bigger than
the steel it replaces.
So the problem is to remove the rust without taking everything apart. And
ideally without doing too much damage to the casing..
So I'd suggest the water blaster, used to remove and dislodge loose rust
without damaging the casing too much. With some vigorous use of a hammer on
the bottom edge and trying to push the keel UP a little, trying to make some
space for the rust to fall out - followed by more water blasting, repeat
until no more rust is dislodged.
Then I'd think about trying to dissolve or break up the rust chemically -
don't know about the whey idea, but perhaps phosphoric acid. Fumes,
environmental, etc etc issues, but it attacks/dissolves rust and passivates
steel.
I'd stay away from the lubricants, if the rust has expanded so much as to
lock it in place lubricant isn't going to solve the problem - either the
plate and rust has to be made smaller, or the slot has to be made bigger.
And water repellent compounds would preclude using rust dissolvers again.
If you can get it moving even a little, repeat the treatments.

Assuming you can deal with the hazards, it would be easy to set up a drip
system for the acid. I think time and patience may be important here.

Good luck !
David