Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for the response. I did the West-system hull repair about 3
summers ago, then attached the keel through this using 3inch
silicon-bronze screws and bedding compound. If I remember correctly,
we had "glued" the scarf joint on the keel with bedding compound. It
all held fine for a summer, until I "overloaded" the middle of the boat
(2 heavy people on the middle seats). I think this flexed the hull at
the scarf joint, and separated the keel from the west-system hull.
Subsequently, I used through-bolts to try and re-tighten the keel, but
to no avail. I can't laminate the inside of the hull, because of the
hull design, and I can't replace ribs without a great deal of work, but
will try to clean the scarf joint, epoxy it, apply some layers of epoxy
over the top of the 2 keel pieces with the fiberglass webbing and use a
"strongback" to stiffen up that section of keel so it doesn't flex as
much (or at all).