Removed from Trailer, Bottom Paint and Keel

Hi!

Mustang is having a bit of pre-season love.  I was going to be keeping her on the trailer and dropping her in the water each time I want to use her but I've been offered a Trot mooring on the River Stour outside Christchurch Sailing Club which I'm tempted to take for convenience.  I believe its fresh water so hoping she doesnt get too gunked up saying in the water.  Either way I want to make sure shes got a good coat of anti foul and the keel is in good order before I launch her.

I've removed her from the trailer.  My technique was as follows:

1. drop trailer nose
2. prop stern on stands
3. raise nose a lot
4. balance a 2.4m 4x4 fence post across 2 more stands to take the weight of the bow, leaving space in between for the trailer to pass through.  bearing 10cm either end with a 2.2m clear span! I was worried it would be too much but the post took it well with no major deflection.
5. lower the trailer against until Mustang is floating in the air
6. withdraw the trailer
7. pop a few blocks of wood under the front of her keel
8. remove the beam and re-secure the stands on her bow.



Here is the keel.  What do you think?  It's well greased.  I was thinking of trying to fully remove it and have it sandblasted and galvanised as Brian said he wanted to do.  I'm not sure if I've got the height to remove it fully though!  Possibly if I drop it and then slide it forwards I might get the clearance.



This is what the bottom paint is looking like.  A fair few chips either into old layers of paint or right down to the fibreglass.  I was thinking of just sanding it smooth and then using Hempel Primer Undercoat which is good for directly onto GRP and old antifoul then going over that with a couple coast of Micron 350.  



Any advice or sage wisdom welcome!

Hi Yan

It's worth taking the keel out by raising the boat slightly. You could either get it galvanised or sandblasted and coated with a few layers of epoxy paint. I would look closely at the joint between the keel box and the hull from the outside as they get chipped by stones getting in the gap and this leads to small leaks. Especially important if you keep the boat on a swinging mooring! I think the Stour is actually brackish water which tends to rust steel more than freshwater.

best wishes

Brian

A little progress update.  Hand sanded with 80 grit and underwater primer on.  I hope to get the anti foul on tomorrow.  I've got a tin of green international micron 350.  I'm not sure about the colour! but I'm not about to go and buy another tin.  Maybe it will grow on me.  Hopefully nothing grows on it! :D

After putting on the primer I noticed plenty of flakes still coming off so next time I think she'll need stripping back down to the GRP, but lets see how a couple coats of anti foul work.

Brian I'll unbolt the keel and try to slide it out.  I really don't think I'm going to be able to get her much higher with the tools I've got available.  Hopefully if I slide it forwards I can raise the end a bit to get the point bit out.  Fingers crossed.  I'd like to get it galvanised if I can!

Do you have any reason to think the keel box might be cracked?  I don't think she's been in the water since you sold her.  Either way I'll check it out.

Here's some pictures of progress.

Progress is being made!  First coat of anti foul paint is on and its an interesting colour combination but I didn't want to go out shopping for new paint just because of colours.



And I've actually managed to get the keel out fully, after lifting the boat up way higher than I'd like to have done and lifting a patio slab and digging a hole lol!





Next step will be to get the keel shot blasted and treated.  This video was interesting to see how he treated his keel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klpCAPiZI70 or I might get it galvanised as Brian suggested.

Progress is moving quickly! Managed to get the keel in for sandblasting already.

Next step I will fair it with compound and cover it with a couple coats of epoxy resin before priming it and antifouling it.

Here is the keel post sandblasting and with a barrier coat on.


Ive realised I made a mistake on the anti foul as well as I've gone over the re-coat time.  I think I'll leave her with 1 coat of antifoul for now and in the winter take her back out of the water and get her bottom half sandblasted so all the old layers of paint are off.  The guy who did the keel was happy to get that done.

Good job Yan!   I remember doing it about 10 years ago with the boat sat on two dumpy bags of wheat!

As for possible cracks around the bottom of the keel box ;  I had this a couple of times when the boat sat on some pebbles in the Camel estuary and some got jammed in the keel/box, so I fixed those.  I hadn't checked again when I sold the boat after it had been in the estuary on the same spot, so worth checking now the keel is out.  

Did you buy Mustang with the same Yam 4hp engine?  That was a perfect engine for the boat and had spent most of its life in freshwater.

Yeah, it’s got the same outboard!  I’m taking it to a guy who services them next week as I don’t know what I’m doing yet so would like an expert to give it a once over and make sure that it’s operating well before I take it out.

I’ll check over the keel box, I saw one or two chips that could use some attention and I’ll be mixing up some west marine resin for the keel so can try and patch and chips with that I guess!
At the weekend I was sailing my laser which progressively got harder to control, it filled with water as the bow has a crack in it so my laser needs a bit of love as well, it’s going to be a week of fibre glass repair!

A little update!  I finished working on the Keel.  After sandblasting I used metal filler for the rust craters and then coated with 2 layers of West Marine Epoxy before using underwater primer and anti foul.


Once the keel was back in I was able to get her back on the trailer and apply some vinyl name stickers


Then finally I was able to get Mustang onto her mooring just outside the Sailing Club in Christchurch.



I was also able to get out last weekend for a short solo test sail around the harbour.  I'm very much looking forward to getting back out and onto the coast.  I just need more practice doing things single handed and time to gain confidence.

Wow!  Mustang has never looked so good - you must have the best Seahawk keel in the world.  I found her very easy to sail single-handed, partly because these boats stand up to their canvas very well and are easy to tack.  Have fun - we had many years enjoying her.  Best wishes Brian