Imho water intrusion is a lot less of an issue on a trailer boat than
it is on boats that live in slip. It's not in the water for any great
length of time. Epoxies are good sealers and if applied with
reasonable care to a dried surface should provide adequate intrusion
protection for a boat that does not live in the water except when being
used. The boat is required to meet the cg flotation requirement based
on it's year and the size. It won't sink, it will just fill with
water. Not that that's not a royal pain in the ass if it happens. Also
it's been my observation that the keel on that type of boat tends to be
thick because typically the polester is sprayed in the mold and tends
to fill behind the keel protrusion. It would be worth a close
examination of the immediate area to see if it flexes excessively or
not. That could change the plan.

Bill Kearney wrote:
Yeah, there's certainly some truth to the notion of 'good money after bad'.

For me the question would be how to minimize future expense and risks. I'd
hate to have a worst-case scenario come up. Like a poor repair job allowing
water infiltration that causes significant weakening of the keel. Weaking
that would allow sudden failure to sink the boat. Perhaps from impact with
somethat that a decent repair would handle without incident. Or just
catastrophic failure while underway at speed.

So I'd balance between what it'd cost to the job done right, selling the
boat as is, or calculating the risk of what a temporary repair job (being
kind) might incur.

But you make a good point.

-Bill Kearney



"jamesgangnc" wrote in message
oups.com...
Bill, I think you're not considering the entire situation. This is a
trailer boat that I'm making a guess is under 21 ft since it only has
one bunk on each side. It's a 94 which makes it 12 years old. I'm
swagging a guess that it's worth somewhere between $6k and $10k. To
restore the front of the keel to the original condition would probably
cost way more than is reasonable. What I suggested is not far from
what they would do except a shop would be able to replace the missing
gelcoat with gelcoat. Gelcoat is tricky to work with where as epoxy
paint is relatively fool proof. For a diy'er epoxy paint is much more
reliable that gelcoat. The keel guard is because there is no way
without a whole lot of work it is going to look as smooth as the rest
of the gelcoat on the boat. The keel guard takes care of the
cosmetics. If this was a $100k cruiser then it would be a different
situation.