Steve, you are right that growth in the keel slot could have been the culprit, but strangely enough, there hardly seems to be any in the trunk itself. The rust on the keel , on the other hand, is fairly severe. It seems as though it may have added as much as a quarter of an inch to the thickness of the keel (maybe more). There are a few small colonies of shells in the extreme front and the extreme rear of the trunk. I'll make sure that they get removed, but they are not in an area where they could have rubbed against the side of the keel. What baffles me is that in looking up in the keel trunk, the sides appear totaly and completely smooth and clean. And it doesnt look like it was just scraped clean by the stuck keel, either. Since this area is not painted with bottom paint I was expecting tons of growth and possibly (I shudder at the thought) blisters, like are on the outside of the hull. When we were in Florida we lifted and lowered the keel both in the water and out and it worked fine. I looked at it while the boat was airborne on a forklift, then we pressure washed it and retracted it prior to setting the boat on the trailer. My only guess is that once exposed to air, the rusting problem sped up. 'Cause man is it rusty now! Next week I am going to have it professionaly sandblasted and we'll see whats left. Between now and then I have to research what would be best to fill the heavily pitted areas to fair the keel. I wonder what it would cost just to go to a steel place and have them cut me a new one with a plasma cutter? Hmmmmm. If it could be done for under $350 it probably would be the way to go. Figuring $150 to sandblast and then all the materials to finish it up right. I don't know. Steel has really gone up in price What would a 50 inch by 50 inch piece of 1 inch plate cast iron cost???? Might be worth checking into Sean