Metal Keel, fin, finish, repair, questions, questions
 

My soon to be new/old boat is a C&C 30 sloop rigged sailboat. The boat was
built in 1974, or 73. Anyway,, it is OLD.

Everything looks pretty sweet but after reading your posts and learning ;;;
I have concerns.

The keel; the C&C 30 of that era has a fin type keel, and the keel is
attached to the hull. From what I can figure the keel is lead. The forward
lower part of the keel shows signs of groundings. Looks like the keel
bumped into a few things .. can't say what. There are dents, or gouges.
The paint covering the keel is flaking. I was able to remove lots of paint
with my swiss arny knife. It looks like the seam at the hull is tight but
the line where the keel and hull meet is evident.

What covering should go on this type of keel? From the flakes of paint, it
looks like a build up of old paint and something under the paint. Either
that or lots of old paint.

Should I cover the keel with some type of epoxy? Then paint?

What about the keel joint?

The hull, the fiberglass part, looks really good. No blister, etc. There
is one very thin layer of bottom paint.

The boat didn't go in the water last summer, what does that do to the bottom
paints, etc

Any C&C 30 owners out there;;;; please email. I will call you.

Lester ,,, the future Captain ...

Metal Keel, fin, finish, repair, questions, questions
 

Lester, any boat of that age should have the keel bolts checked, if the
keel bolted to the hull. I recommend replacing the bolts. (You have
to removed more than one bolt to assess the damages.)

I recommend removing all bolts, lift the hull off the keel, clean and
re-bed all surfaces and attach new bolts.

The fact that you believe the boat has struck an underwater object
necessitates the process I have outlined to assess hull damage.

After you reattach the keel, the bedding compound will address the
problems you mentioned at the keel joint.

Although this is labor intensive and may sound like a big task, it is
relatively easy to do. It will give you great peace of mind on the
water.

Good luck, if you have questions, ask. Dave