MacGregorSailors.com

I forgot to raise the keel on my 70's vintage V-21 and punched a hole in it upon loading the boat on the trailer. When I inspected the keel, it appears the previous owner did the same; there is a quantity of rotten wood and what appears to be chunks of broken glass filler in the hole (about 1" by 1 1/2").
My main question is, what is the structure of this keel?
Is there a steel skeleton to the attachment point? Is it a glassed wood frame? Can I do simple fiberglass repair? Should I worry about it being totally rotten and breaking while heeling?
THanks for any help!
Gordon

Take out all the rotten material and a little more, then fill it in and glass to original size. Should work. If it does not, then try another method.

Over the winter dry the part out really well - heat lamps help a lot with that, BTW. Then dig out all the really badly rotted wood you can. To strengthen what remains of the wood, use a penetrating wood preservation and hardening product (an "epoxy consolidant") like PC-Rot Terminator, Rot-Doctor, LiquidWood, etc. (there are many brands of this stuff). Let that soak down into all the existing wood and cure - it's best to do this work when the part is at no more than around 70F degrees and no less than 60F. - you want to allow the epoxy to fully penetrate the dry wood by capillary action before it starts to cure. Then use an epoxy filler to replace the removed rotted wood. Finish by the usual replacement of the exterior fiberglass. You'll be left with a structure that's substantially as strong as the original.

Thanks for the reply. Do you know how much this keel weighs? I'm thinking of bringing it home to work on over the winter.

WM sells structural body filler. It's Bondo with lots of chopped up fiberglass in it. I've used a lot of it on my old powerboat, and some on my Mac. That's what I would use to repair it.

I can't tell you what it weighs, but since the Mac 25 keel weighs in at around 650 lbs, its probably safe to assume the V21 is at least 450 lbs. I agree with the prior post on using the fiberstrand body filler. This stuff is approved for boats as its waterproof. I used it to fill in some holes on my rudder and it worked great. Once it was dried I sanded it smooth and spray painted it white. Looked good enough for me and had no problems with it.

!	Frank C:
	Keel weights are shown at Wadler's Macgregor Pages.  Considering this one is 400 lbs. seems taking it home wouldn't be easy. In fact, if repairs are feasible with it remaining installed, better to not even remove it. Other websites have illustrated the process for R&R of Mac/Venture keels. Sorry, cannot remember where I've seen it, but I'm sure we don't have it pictured here.