The area to clarify is to establish that no ballast material got out or
displaced.
The geometric center of the boat could have changed. I am insisting on this
point because I have seen boats capsizing or heeling excessively. After
long investigations we learned that these boats had lost some of their keel
ballast. If done properly an encapsulated keel is acceptable as long as the
weight material is solidified into one piece with no room for movement. The
best way is to pour melted lead into the fiberglass capsule. High pressure
cement mixed with latex is worth investigating (similar to the crack filling
cement used in repairing water dams).

"Ian Malcolm" wrote in message
...
joeb wrote:

I'm not entirely sure what it is...I think it's fiberglass
encapsulated. There's some solid material in the center, but I'm not
sure what it is. It doesn't seem like metal. If it helps, the boat is a
1972 O'Day 22".

When the hole was exposed, I could reach in and move the center
material back and forth a couple inches. I also let it dry out for a
couple weeks. Thanks for your reply.

AARGH, I just typed a long reply to your other identical post in
rec.boats.building WITHOUT the additional info you just posted. This
was because you MULTIPOSTED. THIS IS WORSE THAN CROSS POSTING. I see
you are using google groups, but even that kludgy interface can handle
cross posting. If you had put [ rec.boats.building, rec.boats.cruising
] (without the [] of course) in the box just above '(Separate multiple
groups with commas)' you would have xposted (cross posted) it ok. (I
just did a test to confirm this) If Xposting, make sure your message is
appropriate and on topic for each group, (rule of thumb, NOTHING is ever
appropriate for more that 3 groups) or you will get a serious roasting
from regulars on those groups. Thats enough nettiquette for one day :-)


You shouldn't have a void in the bottom of your keel with loose stuff
inside. An empty or foamed void is possible if the designer got the
trim wrong and they had to move ballast forward or aft between the
prototytpe and the main production run. Did you grind back the edges of
the hole on the side of the keel far enough to make sure there is no
delamination? A better description of the loose stuff in the centre
would help, Is it smoothish and regularily shaped or jagged chunks?
I cant help feeling you may have lost a quantity of loose ballast out of
the hole. At this point you may well need to talk to a pro who knows
O'Days.
--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
[at]=@, [dash]=- & [dot]=. *Warning* HTML & 32K emails -- NUL:
'Stingo' Albacore #1554 - 15' Early 60's, Uffa Fox designed,
All varnished hot moulded wooden racing dinghy.