DragonFly
10-02-2002, 09:20 PM
I finally moved the ballast out of the way to begin work on the keel of Dragonfly. However, the more I look at the ballast the more I think it needs to be replaced as well. It's roughly ten feet long, 10inches wide, 12 inches tall, so um, maybe around 6,000lbs. Something like that.
Here are the reasons I see for replacing.
1. It does not fit, one block spacer in the bow and plywood spacers used in the stern. The original builder must not have accounted for shrinkage since it is also about a quarter inch narrower than the actual keel.
2. It was poured at three different times, evidence is the splitting length wise.
3. There are several repairs apparently because of the amount of googe here and there. Talking chunks, big chunks in places. So it's not very fair at all. It is after all the googe was put on.
4. Seems to be corroding in a few places. One spot it almost looks like dirt, reddish and it crumbles when picked at with a screwdriver. Did this for awhile and now have a square hole about two inches deep. Well, I thought it was a filler for the access to keelbolt nuts. No, those were on the very bottom.
5. Too much weight in the stern, would like to remove a bit of the lead and fill in with false keel. Not fully convinced but the previous owner sure thinks so.
I'm not sure how problamatic these sypmtoms would be if I were to just put it all back together and be on my merry way. Anyone have any experience with similar issues?
I'm left with questions like what would the splitting do if I replaced it as is and put some epoxy over it like originally. I think it will eventually split the epoxy and then let water seep under there.
Any tidbits of knowledge, help, thoughts, musings or even jabs would be greatly appreciated. Kinda lost with this decision of replacing or not replacing the ballast.
I feel confident I can pour a ballast so that's not a concern.
Thanks Louis
Here are the reasons I see for replacing.
1. It does not fit, one block spacer in the bow and plywood spacers used in the stern. The original builder must not have accounted for shrinkage since it is also about a quarter inch narrower than the actual keel.
2. It was poured at three different times, evidence is the splitting length wise.
3. There are several repairs apparently because of the amount of googe here and there. Talking chunks, big chunks in places. So it's not very fair at all. It is after all the googe was put on.
4. Seems to be corroding in a few places. One spot it almost looks like dirt, reddish and it crumbles when picked at with a screwdriver. Did this for awhile and now have a square hole about two inches deep. Well, I thought it was a filler for the access to keelbolt nuts. No, those were on the very bottom.
5. Too much weight in the stern, would like to remove a bit of the lead and fill in with false keel. Not fully convinced but the previous owner sure thinks so.
I'm not sure how problamatic these sypmtoms would be if I were to just put it all back together and be on my merry way. Anyone have any experience with similar issues?
I'm left with questions like what would the splitting do if I replaced it as is and put some epoxy over it like originally. I think it will eventually split the epoxy and then let water seep under there.
Any tidbits of knowledge, help, thoughts, musings or even jabs would be greatly appreciated. Kinda lost with this decision of replacing or not replacing the ballast.
I feel confident I can pour a ballast so that's not a concern.
Thanks Louis