Hi All, here is a update, managed to glass and get 1 coat of primer on half of the hull, but then decided it was time to move inside, Spent the last two weekends building my very temporary boat shed. ( the neighbors are very pleased to hear the temporary part ). "Annabell" now as 14' x 36' house and I have a place to hide for the winter.
  I did a big NO NO with the keel " I GLASSED IT " gave it a lot of thought, this is my thinking, I had glued the three layers of 1x with epoxy and screws, I then went ahead and added a lot more 2" screws
( 50 to the sq ft ) on both sides of the keel. then I brushed on two coats of epoxy followed by three layers of 8 oz cloth. I also intend to cap the bottom of the keel with 3" x 3/8" aluminum to ride on the rollers on the trailer. If I get two years or so I will be happy - replacing the keel would not be the end of the world. I am sure this is going to start the glass or don't glass the keel postings again.
                  Yours for now Keith W
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Keith
Sand the glass off from the outer edge of the keel and keep a real close watch on the sides. It is a lot of work to replace the keel . I had put 6 layers of 8 oz cloth on my keel and water still found its way in. This is the result.[attachment=1][attachment=2][attachment=3]I haven't been able to get the water from coming in after replacing the keel.
Pat - How old is our boat?
Or how long the keel lasted?
Do you have pictures how you repaired the keel.
Perttu
I glassed my plywood keel which is now almost 4 years old (launched last August - long story). So - I've committed 2 "sins" - glassing and plywood.
However - my logic - such as it is - goes like this.Â
Large pieces of wood are dimensionally unstable and will shrink/expand/twist due to environmental changes - which we have a lot of here in Ontario.
The boat is going to spend most of it's life on the trailer with the keel protected by the hull and will have a chance to thouroughly dry out between uses.
3/4" plywood was cheaper and easier to source (I used 3 sheets I believe) than the dimensional lumber.
Most dimensional lumber of the size required isn't kiln dried.
Fir plywood cracks and checks so should be covered with fiberglass to prevent that
Most damage to the keel on these boats come from the bottom of the keel - mine has 2 layers of glass covered by a steel strip bedded in roof patch compound.
We'll see how it works out but I do know of other builders with glassed plywood keels that were quite happy with them. 4 years and 1 launch later mine is still in mint condition - other than the scrapes on the steel from my adventure.
Glassing a large piece of dimensional lumber though could cause a problem with delamination if the wood is subjected to large environmental changes.
I built Sanddragon in 2003 those pictures are from 2007. I think loading and unloading the boat from the trailor put aa couple of small cracks in the glass I didn't see. Water got in and you see the results.
My weekender is 4 years too. ( 3 summers in water ) Â Keel made from pine glued
from smaller pieces â because in Finland it is hard to find that
large timber. I glassed it with 2 layers of cloth. Â There is
no visible damage in keel. and I made keelguard from aluminium fastened wit sikaflex ( not any screws ).- Â Plywood keel sounds wiser to me.
I´m not sure is the timbers shrink/expand big problem with temperature changes? If the water havenât found its way inside the glass gloth .
Wet wood will shrink less when temperature goes down, because water expands, when it gets freeze?. But the moisture changes in timber causes problem, if water goes inside glass.
Maby it arent that simble. I was also thinking neither glass on not? But decided to do glassing â still somehow it feels odd to glass solid wood. I think that eventually water finds it ways, no mater how carefully I am doing the glassing so when I build the boat I thought if it least ten years I will be happy!
We will see?
Pat - 4 years have made lot of damage.
I think climate has a lot to do with it as well. In Canada, just like I presume in Finland we don't have the wood rot issues that warmer parts of the world that never freeze have. Just like we don't have the same problems with bugs.
I just don't see why you would want to put glass on large pieces of wood that will be underwater. Wood is waterproof as is! You only get rot if wood is allowed to get wet AND have oxygen. This never happens with a trailer sailer or one even kept in the water all season. Keels seldom just rot and most of the times the problem is in salt water with worms, but not rot. Paint will protect overall better then epoxy in this situation. A wooden boat will not rot because it is in the water, but rather if water gets into places that can't dry out.