boat owner

Keel crack repair

➜

I

n order to repair that tiny
crack, we needed to drill
it out. The best method, to
ensure we didn’t spread the
crack, was to drill a hole at
either end. (Do bear in mind
that what you can see on the
outside of the hull may be the
‘thin end of the wedge’, and
the crack may extend further
inside the boat.)
I then drilled holes along
the crack, checking the angle

A hole was drilled at either end...

The drill holes were joined up

with the Fein multi-tool and its

diamond disc cutter (below)

...and I then drilled holes along

the crack

Exploring the extent of the

damaged GRP around the crack

O

nce I had confirmed
the extent of the crack,
I measured out the 15:1
bevel and marked it with
a marker pen.
Creating a bevel on a flat
surface is relatively easy to
do by eye, but creating a
bevel in an area like this is
pretty damn tricky! In order
to ascertain how far I needed
to grind back, I cut out some
cardboard templates
of the area and marked
on them exactly how far
I would need to grind back.
With this done, you can get
suited up in your PPE, tape
up your cuffs, get your grinder
out and carefully grind back
your bevel. This is an alarming
job: go slowly and carefully,
checking often with your
template. Once you are
done, you will be left with a
nice tidy hole and a nice tidy
bevel ready to be filled and
glassed over.

A cardboard template was used to calculate

the bevelling

Depth graduations were marked on the template The opened-up crack with bevel

2: Bevelling out the edges

1: Drilling out the crack

carefully and where the holes

terminated inside the boat to

make sure I was drilling straight

and true in line with the crack. In

this instance that was quite easy,

as the boat was cracked along her

centreline. I used my Fein with its

diamond disc to ‘join the dots’

and tidy the opened-up crack.

The important thing is ensuring

you go far enough to find

good, solid GRP that has

not been compromised.