OK...just drilled port side pin hole out to 1/2". No solid metal encountered. Outer layer is obviously the glass forming the outside of the keel, and innermost layer is glass forming wall of CB trunk. Then there's a layer that looks like some dark, possibly metallic material. Smells slightly metallic, like machined metal with a tang of machine oil. But a magnet test on the drill shavings don't show much or any steel, so far (need to dig up a better magnet, just used a magnetized bit holder, and the material is wet/damp so it clings to smooth surfaces anyhow...). Would the steel ballast fill in the keel actually extend all the way down and around where the stop pin is? I was assuming that area would be solid glass and/or resin/filler pour. If what I'm seeing in that layer is part of the ballast void, or even just an area of some other material open to the ballast void, no wonder it leaked and amazing it didn't happen decades ago...nothing but a smear of some kind of caulk or putty sealing the hole around that end of the bolt (I have a fragment of whatever the sealing material is with bolt threads in it, that came out in a chunk when I pulled the pin out). The stbd side pin hole looked dry and solid and I was going to leave it alone, but now I am inclined to drill out, backfill, and re-drill that side out as well. If it's the same construction situation as the port side, it could start leaking any time. More news as it happens... cheers, John S. On 10/11/2016 10:38 AM, David Rifkind wrote:
On Oct 10, 2016, at 1:03 PM, John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net> wrote:
I am thinking to enlarge the hole, then fill completely, and then redrill the 3/8" pin hole. As much of a fresh start as possible where the leak seems to be and the pin actually bears on the keel. Fill would be silica-thickened epoxy. Not sure if I would need to add milled fiber also; seems like overkill for such a small fill.
I’d like to know what you find in there. My stop pin is misplaced and I’ve thought about moving it but worry that—as you speculated—there might be a metal insert.
-- 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