Hi all, Some of you may recall that at end of last season, I noticed a small damp spot persisting below aft end of my keel as the boat sat on the trailer. And it turned out that somehow some water had gotten in there, very slowly, and was dripping out, very slowly. I then investigated further with some test holes into the keel, determining that some small amount of water had gotten in some areas of the bottom of the keel. The drip was from port side CB stop bolt area so I started exploring. Update is - the port side hole for CB stop bolt was compromised. In essence there was a "vein" of ballast punchings running through the area where the hole had been drilled. A very small vein, but nonetheless...a direct path to whatever interior voids could be seeped to from that point. I can only guess that at some point whatever sealant had been used on that end of the bolt ceased to seal. Fix for that side is done - I drilled out oversized, filled with thickened resin, re-drilled. So there is now a solid collar of thickened resin between the bolt in its hole and any entry to the keel voids. The starboard side, which I initially thought was untroubled, was a different story. In looking at it closely I could see - and dig out - some soft caulking in the area around the bolt head. Further investigation revealed a vein of caulk running between layers of trunk and keel...and some other materials not the original, on top of the original gelcoat (easy to spot as it is the orange/tangerine color). Short story appears to be, at some point, possibly far past, someone likely dropped the keel hard and busted out the bottom side on that side of the keel stop bolt. Or something close to it. In sanding and grinding and ferreting out the caulk vein, I felt much like I imagine a dentist feels working to clean out a cavity before filling the tooth. Bottom line is that there was a major patch done around the stop bolt and a bit forward on the bottom of keel on the starboard side, and at some point either it was damaged again and caulk used to patch, or, it was just a really crappy job to start with. So I cut and/or ground away all the junk, and found that it all led to solid resin. The only actual seepage into the keel was most likely on the port side. So now I am re-constructing the starboard side...it just needs to hold the stop bolt, there's nothing structural affecting the keel itself. I've been taking some pics that I will post later on...the bad news is, more work than I thought. The good news is, soon it will all be solid and sealed again and I can get her sailing! cheers, john S. -- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com