I have a 56 Penn Yan Captivator that I worked on for several years.
The entire hull below the spray-rail was West-system epoxied, because
there was substantial rot in the ribs and floor that we didn't want to
deal with (the boat was given to me, it was my first restoration
project). A couple of summers ago, the keel, which is scarfed in
several places, separated from the hull under load at one of the scarf
joints, creating a leak at the level of the middle bench-seat. The
leak is minor when going at trawling speed, but getting up on plane
allows in about a quart every 5-10 minutes. The keel was screwed onto
the hull through the west-system-covered hull. We tried
through-bolting the 2 sides of the scarf joint into the inner keel
piece to "cinch" the joint back up, but to no avail. I know there is
considerable flex at this point of the hull (not a great place for a
joint).

I am wondering if anybody has a relatively simple fix for this sort
problem. My thought was to clean out the joint, epoxy in a biscuit to
bond the scarf together, then place a 8-10 foot long metal plate along
the length of the keel across this joint to keep it from flexing open
as much under load. Then caulk the heck out of the joint and hope the
reduced flex will minimize the leak. I don't necessarily want a great
cosmetic job, and I am prepared to have a small amount of leakage, but
want to minimize the leakage as much as possible and have it
structurally more sound than it is at present.

Thanks for any suggestions.

It's kind of hard to visualize exactly what you are dealing with (at
least for me). It sounds like you have done everything *except* make
the effort to clean out the original joint and re-glue it, using epoxy.

Sure, it might not be a good place for a joint, but it lasted 40 years
prior to separation. I think you need to bit the bullett, excavate
whatever you need to get at the joint, clean both sides out with a wood
rasp, or a dremel tool with rough sandpaper on a drum, or perhaps cut
out the exterior portion all together and graft in a new piece from the
outside.

If the wood is too decayed to hold glue, ie you glue the joint up, but
it fails because the wood immediately separates just beyond the epoxy
line, you are going to have to cut back to solid wood.

A strongback, like the 8-10 foot piece of metal you are suggesting can
be useful too. I had a rot situation created by electrolytic decay at
bronze through hulls on an old sailboat. A *proper* fix would have
involved cutting back and replacing several planks at several points
where there had been through hulls in the boat. Instead we laminated
several layers of light MDO (3/8" I think) on the inside of the hull and
one on the outside, after saturating the spongy wood with resin. We had
about an inch of rot around/at each through hull and radiated each patch
6 inches past that.

You are probably on a track that will get results, of a sort. Rebuilding
a *composit* hull, when the composits are old wood, rotted wood, and
epoxy, can be a challenge

Good luck

Jonathan

Twinkieboy wrote:
I have a 56 Penn Yan Captivator that I worked on for several years.
The entire hull below the spray-rail was West-system epoxied, because
there was substantial rot in the ribs and floor that we didn't want to
deal with (the boat was given to me, it was my first restoration
project). A couple of summers ago, the keel, which is scarfed in
several places, separated from the hull under load at one of the scarf
joints, creating a leak at the level of the middle bench-seat. The
leak is minor when going at trawling speed, but getting up on plane
allows in about a quart every 5-10 minutes. The keel was screwed onto
the hull through the west-system-covered hull. We tried
through-bolting the 2 sides of the scarf joint into the inner keel
piece to "cinch" the joint back up, but to no avail. I know there is
considerable flex at this point of the hull (not a great place for a
joint).

I am wondering if anybody has a relatively simple fix for this sort
problem. My thought was to clean out the joint, epoxy in a biscuit to
bond the scarf together, then place a 8-10 foot long metal plate along
the length of the keel across this joint to keep it from flexing open
as much under load. Then caulk the heck out of the joint and hope the
reduced flex will minimize the leak. I don't necessarily want a great
cosmetic job, and I am prepared to have a small amount of leakage, but
want to minimize the leakage as much as possible and have it
structurally more sound than it is at present.

Thanks for any suggestions.

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).