I own a 1974 Montgomery 17. The boat has been out of the water for several years. I just noticed a crack in the fiberglass of the shoal keel. I'm not certain of the construction but it looks like an inner steel or iron structure may have rusted, expanded, and split the fiberglass. The crack is roughly horizontal, about midway between the hull and the bottom of the keel, about 2-feet long, and nearer the aft end of the keel. The split is nearly 1/2-inch wide. I also just noticed a bulge and hairline crack on the opposite side of the keel. Any insight and/or suggestions? Thanks. Sincerely, John Crews
good luck, the iron pellets used for ballast on your vintage boat have gotten wet and expanded causing the fiberglass to crack. There are fixes in the photo sections of the site. gil On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 2:01 PM, John Crews <johncrews@hotmail.com> wrote:
I own a 1974 Montgomery 17. The boat has been out of the water for several years. I just noticed a crack in the fiberglass of the shoal keel. I'm not certain of the construction but it looks like an inner steel or iron structure may have rusted, expanded, and split the fiberglass. The crack is roughly horizontal, about midway between the hull and the bottom of the keel, about 2-feet long, and nearer the aft end of the keel. The split is nearly 1/2-inch wide. I also just noticed a bulge and hairline crack on the opposite side of the keel. Any insight and/or suggestions?
Thanks.
Sincerely,
John Crews
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Hi John, Don't panic, its not as bad as people think this is. You can either do the work yourself or have a yard do it for you. The repair will consist of removing the delaminated fiberglass which takes a short period of time with a good angle grinder, then knock out the portion of the ballast that is rusted. It probably won't be too much and then re-fiberglass. The key part after that work is done is finding where the water intrusion occurred. More then likely it leaked around either the stop pin or the pivot pin and perhaps the very bottom of the keel. On the montgomery owners photosite you will see where the likely leak spots are. I had a yard fix mine 3 years ago for about $800 which included blasting and coating the centerboard and it has been good ever since. On February 22, 2010 at 8:01 PM John Crews <johncrews@hotmail.com> wrote:
I own a 1974 Montgomery 17. The boat has been out of the water for several years. I just noticed a crack in the fiberglass of the shoal keel. I'm not certain of the construction but it looks like an inner steel or iron structure may have rusted, expanded, and split the fiberglass. The crack is roughly horizontal, about midway between the hull and the bottom of the keel, about 2-feet long, and nearer the aft end of the keel. The split is nearly 1/2-inch wide. I also just noticed a bulge and hairline crack on the opposite side of the keel. Any insight and/or suggestions?
Thanks.
Sincerely,
John Crews
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
John, there is a fabulous site put together by Sean (M-23 Dauntless) that shows in detail fixing the rusted steel ballast issue (http://www.havasumontgomerys.piczo.com/?cr=1). I might suggest that the source of the leak may be at the joint where the outer shoal keel meets the inner center board liner. You can see it if you get under the keel and stare straight up. On my '75 M-17 this joint showed some deterioration and after reading that Sean found this joint to be the probable culprit on his classic M-23 (I think our over 30 year old M boats should be called classics :)) I put some cloth and epoxy in mine to try and avoid any water infiltration issues since I know my boat is carrying around steel punchings as well. I like working with epoxy and Sean also has some tutorials on the MSOG photo site about working with epoxy. If you are willing to do the work looking at what Sean has done should give you some great ideas on how to approach it. Best of luck and if you do tackle it please let us know how you are making out. Robbin John Crews wrote:
I own a 1974 Montgomery 17. The boat has been out of the water for several years. I just noticed a crack in the fiberglass of the shoal keel. I'm not certain of the construction but it looks like an inner steel or iron structure may have rusted, expanded, and split the fiberglass. The crack is roughly horizontal, about midway between the hull and the bottom of the keel, about 2-feet long, and nearer the aft end of the keel. The split is nearly 1/2-inch wide. I also just noticed a bulge and hairline crack on the opposite side of the keel. Any insight and/or suggestions?
Thanks.
Sincerely,
John Crews
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!
participants (4)
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cparrish＠fafnirnet.net -
Gilbert Landin -
John Crews -
robbin roddewig