What would you do?

[Thunderstruck]

I have a boat which has severe wear at the keel area,The wear is about 10ft long.There is one spot that is about 3 inches that is worse than the rest and I saw water seaping out.The boat was bought in September and I have not had it in the water yet(am doing A MAJOR REFIT).I have no problem fixing the keel area and when fixed plan on installing a KEEL GAURD.It looks like most of the damage was caused by bad rollers because the middle is out on all of them.I have no way of getting to the area without ripping up the floor.That would be very hard to do.I am woundering if I should drill some holes in the area and let dry and then repair and if so what should be used to fill the holes.I was planning on using MARINE TEX,Thanks

 

[Solittle]

Re: What would you do?

You can use Marine Tex to fill both. It cures under water and is great stuff. There was a recent post on it but I don't remember where. You might try the red Search for more info.

 

[jmattor]

Re: What would you do?

I had some similar issues with a Boston Whaler I brought back to life. Try to keep the boat in a dry area, drill a small hole (carefully) near the seeping area and check the condition of the material you drill out. Hopefully you haven't developed any rot. Be careful not to drill too many holes and avoid stringers and other important stuff (like gas tanks) If there is any air circulation at all near the area in the interior I'd run a dehumidifier in there for a while and see how much moisture it picks up.<br />For the repair I'd recommend West System 2-part epoxy injected with a big plastic syringe to get to the hard to reach parts. Let the resin get soaked into the substrate and cure at least 6 hours. Mix the resin with microfibers for the larger holes and the final patch worked in with a Bondo blade. Good luck to you.