Stop bolts were in the much older botes and they had a 160 pound cast iron plate for a centerboard. A hook curve in the aft end of the board and it would catch a bolt going crossways in the back. Plenty of them the hole got elongated and/or that small hook shaped area would break the cast iron. In the mid to late 80s the Bote went to a fiberglass smaller board. No stop bolt. Different configuration. The centerboard and trunk is in the middle of the keel just forward of the bilge area like that photo I sent. So we bond in the trunk envelope and pour lead shot on either side And aft and forward. The top of the trunk is flush with the hull. The liner sits on the top somewhat and I think the clown with the hammer cracked the floor and directly underneath, cracked the board a bit. So it can be fixed but from the top a 4 inch hole saw to actually see the damage or from below would require lifting the Bote and a midget with a crew cut and long handled brush could stick some hot clothe 1 inch wide tape way up. I would just hole saw the crack up top. Lift off the piece and take a look. Unless Aqua is traveling to the crack from elsewhere you can easily fix it. If it’s traveling then check the seam of the board trunk and hull edge and that would indicate someone dropped the boat on concrete. But still could be taped up with 7 ounce cloth around the perimeter. Which we repaired a lot of the older boats to keep water out of the keel area and rust the ballast. You mentioned that they replaced the pin after struggling to get the board out and then laminated up against the new pin. Hopefully they did a good job because the pin goes thru a solid glass cylinder and doesn’t touch the ballast at all. Because of this, no waterproofing the ends of the pin is necessary but if they dropped the hull it could damage that glass cylinder we install by laying a fake pin across the GAP with the trunk in place, and waxing the crap out of this fake pin, then WRAPPING layering hot glass cloth to the thickness of a toilet paper empty roll. Then after that kicks off we slide the waxed fake pin out and a new shorter pin is ready to slide sideways with some caulk to hold the fiberglass board. So hammering the floor inside your boat is really primitive and as you can see damaged the liner by cracking to glass. Time for coffee Bob Sent from my iPad
On Apr 2, 2022, at 11:36 PM, Mary Campbell <sailmaryc@gmail.com> wrote:
Also, I would like clarification about what is considered the keel of a Montgomery 17. Is the entire structure of the bilge/center board trunk considered to be the “keel”? Is the keel under the vberth? Where and what part exactly the keel? (I had a fin keel cruising boat for 25 years so it was obvious!) The location of my crack is directly above the pivot pin, which is the forward end of the centerboard trunk as I understand the design of the boat. Your description seems to imply that the keel is forward of the CB trunk. But other people who have been posting seem to refer to the keel differently. I am confused.
Also, where is the stop bolt i hear about? There was nothing like that on my centerboard and i cant find any photos of it online. Where is it in the centerboard trunk? I am really wishing i had taken photos of the inside of that trunk on the hard!
On Apr 2, 2022, at 11:03 PM, John Schinnerer via montgomery_boats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> wrote:
I'll chime in as the owner of an older M17 (#38, 1974) that had leakage into the keel (but not into the interior of the boat).
I am with Jerry on this - you really want to know where the water first gets into the boat, and seal it up there. That will be somewhere on the outside of the boat. One way to do that, as described, is to have the boat on the hard, put a bunch of water inside, and watch for where it oozes out.
Reason being, if you only seal up where it finally reaches the inside, you may be trapping water somewhere between where it enters the hull/keel and where you see it reach the interior at that small crack.
Where you see it oozing into the cabin floor may not be where it is actually coming thru the hull and/or keel. The location you & Jim identify is directly above the keel, and a ways back from the front of the keel, as I read it. Looking at the M17 line drawings, it is an open question if it is still above solid keel, or possibly above the very forward part of the CB trunk.
In any case it's not like most of the rest of the hull where there is just the fiberglass hull layup between outside and inside.
From where your crack is, the water would at least have to come from the top of the CB trunk, IF the crack is above the trunk. If the crack is actually forward of the CB trunk, above the keel, then it would more likely be coming thru from the keel.
I don't know how thick the top of the CB trunk is, or if it's solid all the way to the inside surface of the hull, or if there's a fore-aft seam there that might have opened up.
Jerry and/or Bob, can you describe that part of the boat? How is the CB trunk made and installed, does it have a seam at top?
When I acquired it, my M17 had a leak into the keel, which I only discovered when I saw a damp spot below the aft end of keel (where the stop bolt is) on the driveway some days after hauling my boat out. That was the water that had gotten into the keel, slowly slowly dripping out. It never came into the interior of the boat. There is normally no path for water that gets in the keel to get into the interior of the boat. Or for water in the CB trunk to get in either, besides the hole for the CB pennant.
So my guess would be one of:
1) you've got water getting in your keel, and somehow a crack opened up between keel and interior and it's oozing in.
2) somehow a crack opened up between top of CB trunk and interior and it's oozing in.
It could be a crack in the CB trunk letting water into the keel which then comes thru the crack into the interior - still basically same as 1) above, water getting in keel then thru crack to interior.
How that crack occurred remains a mystery, but sealing it only on the inside I would consider a temporary/short-term response only. If at all possible, find out where on the outside of the boat water first gets in.
Final suggestion - don't use duct tape (for anything, ever, except ducts). It makes a mess if left in place for long and it won't seal out water at any pressure from oozing in. Maybe for a few hours, or days if you get lucky, but then it will fail and you'll still have the duct tape sticky-mess to clean up before anything else will stick.
Jim, I can empathize a bit with how you feel...when I sold my Ensenada 20, years ago, it was leak-free up to end of season and hauling out. When the new owners first splashed it many months later, there was an immediate oozing at the CB pivot bolt. But on that boat, it's all exposed on the interior, the source of leak was obvious, and the repair location reasonably accessible. This one is a bit trickier to diagnose...
cheers, John
On 4/2/22 18:18, Mary Campbell wrote: So glad you have those photos!!!! I am wondering that myself. I was not there when they dropped it, when I got there it was already out and they were prepping for barrier coat. If it was stuck it would have made more sense to wiggle from the bottom, but maybe they sent someone up to encourage it and he did not think to use a block between the hammer and the fiberglass. I will have to wait until the guy I contracted with comes back from vacation next week to have him look at it. He will remember because if two people were working on it and let's say he was down below and sent the other guy up to work from that end, he would remember doing that. I am not sure who actually took it out. I have shown it to the guy who painted the boat and he did not offer any explanation so maybe he was not involved. I did not take the carpet out until Monday when I stepped in and it was wet. And I didn’t notice the crack then because I was paying a lot more attention to the full bilge. The bilge had filled and soaked the carpet so I assumed the water was coming from the back and moving FORWARD. I was focussed BEHIND the hauspipe trying to figure out how the bilge was filling. It was confusing because there were a couple of the lapstrake channels that had water in them so that made me crawl all through the lazarettes. So I had moved everything out of the stern and onto the salon. It took me a while to figure out that the bilge pump was leaking - that allowed me to stop worrying about the hull, and move things back…and then I noticed the crack in the floor and the trickle. I did tighten the clamps on the pump and we will see if that solves THAT problem. Anyway, my intuition tells me that we are on the road to recovery. With the duct tape in place, as long as it holds I am no longer feeling like I need to check the bilge morning and night (but I will until I am sure that the leak has stopped.) When the guy gets back from vacation, I will have him look at it and see if seems to know anything about how the problem started and how to repair it. I have a shipwright (not the same guy) coming to look at it on Monday as well. I understand more about the boat having been forced to caress every inch of the hull that I could reach. I have my boat list of things I need to do to get her ready to sail. The cushion covers are washed and I feel ok about putting them in now that I won’t need to move things around to check for leaks anymore. I still have to figure out where to go from the duct tape. Jerry suggests that I should not seal up the top without figuring out how the water is getting in. Bob seemed to think that I could seal on the top and not make things worse. I am wondering about leaving things like they are for the next couple of months and dealing with it when I haul at the end of summer. I wish I could dissect an M-17 keel/CB trunk/bilge to get a clue about where the water might be running. Anyway, that is more drama than I needed this week! I really appreciate all of your help rallying the troops.
On Apr 2, 2022, at 5:17 PM, Jim Ellsworth <jellsworth603@gmail.com> wrote:
Ok, this is really strange. I went back to all of my photos of Grace (and there are a lot!). When I first got her I stripped all of the cushions and anything else in the boat out to do some deep cleaning and in those pictures I have a couple of the salon floor. Not great quality but from what I can see there was no circle or indentation in the floor as appears now. I can say I know of nothing heavy that ever dropped on the floor and once I ordered that custom rug it has been in the boat 100% of the time except for cleaning. Check the rug to see if there is any sign of that indentation or small tear etc. Also when I packed the boat I purposely put the new boat cover on the floor in case anything fell off the v-berth in transit. Did you observe them dropping the centerboard? I am wondering if they punched the pin out and the board was stuck and they tried to break it loose by pounding on the salon floor? Hopefully not but it is really strange because I thought it was just part of the mold for the floor until I just looked at my pictures. Jim
-- 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