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Our MK III has VC 17 over VC Tar, but the bottom isn't in great shape and there are lots of areas where the VC Tar didn't bond well. We had thought about stripping off all the VC Tar and taking it down to the gelcoat, then putting on Interprotect, but we decided to put that off for another year. However, our hull-keel joint isn't in very good shape, and we're wondering about just doing the rudder and keel this year, and perhaps the rest of the bottom next year. Anybody have any suggestions or advice, in particular, what to use to fair the hull-keel joint? Would you take the keel down to the bare lead?Hugh Morrin
Blue Zulu
MK III, #894
Nepean Sailing Club
Hugh Morrin
Blue Zulu, C&C 27 Mk III, #894
Nepean Sailing Club, www.nsc.ca/cc27
President and back-up webmaster, C&C 27 Association
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hi Hugh,
We have the same coating system on ours: VC-17 over Tar. You'll probably find that you hit lead no matter what, unless someone has been there before you and covered the joint with epoxy. If the joint is that messy, this is quite likely. The cracking of the joint between hull and keel is known as the 'C&C smile' and the only way I have heard of to get rid of it is to glass it over. Even then it's still only a temporary fix (maybe 5-10 years).
I have been fairing ours every spring and finding it cracked unevenly again in the fall, mostly due to the fact that the weather has never been right before launch for the epoxy to set correctly. This year it was out for other work in the summer and I repeated the work in fair weather so come haul-out later this week I'll know if it 'took' more thoroughly.
So, basically, if you don't want to strip the whole hull now [and, hey, who does] you can clean out the join area, picking out any loose and flaky bits, fair it with epoxy mixed with a filler [cabosil or micro-balloons or whatever you like] and then tar/17. That's going to be about as good as it gets. I keep thinking there's got to be a way to 'pre-crack' or groove the joint to clean up the amount of cracking during the season, but I haven't figured out yet how to do it effectively without profiling the keel shape.
Best,
Gord.
FOLLOW UP: Now that the boat is out of the water I've had a chance to look at the join. Apparently having the opportunity to do it in warm weather helped a lot as there is only slight stress cracking this year. Yipee.
G>
Last edited by (2004-11-10 05:57:33)
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