> I have an '87, which is similar to yours; however, it has no "false floor
> covering the area behind the center-board trunk. It does have some
> fibreglass on
> top of the hull in that area, which (presumably) keeps water ou of the
keel.
> This patch has very little resin in it, being mostly coarse glass cloth,
> hence it
> leaks and water accumulates in the keel. A friend has a modern P19 which
> has
> drain and plug at the back end of his keel which he can open when the boat
> is on
> the trailer, consequently draining the keel (and his bilge). I'm
> considering a
> modification similar to this (and adding resin to the glass cloth).
>
Hi Tom,
What you describe sounds exactly like mine. Mine has coarse glass cloth in
the same area as yours. Maybe that 1/2" opening on mine is just due to poor
craftmanship.
If you DO decide to add resin to make the glass less porous, I hope you'll get
ALL the paint off first. It looks like it might be difficult to get if all
off, due to the cloth's rough weave. If you don't, as you may already know,
the epoxy will not bond -- the paint will just bubble. Also, I think (not
positive) that it would be best to use epoxy rather than polyester resin,
because polyester resin is not truely water proof.
Rather than cutting a hole in the aft part of the skeg keel for a plug, I'm
considering sealing up the area around the coarse glass, and installing an
inspection port in the coarse glass layer aft of the cabin stairs. I can just
unscrew the cover on the inspection port if I need to pump water out. That's
similar to how Jerry Barrilleaus P-19 #48 was built (he has a floor in his
cabin liner with an inspection port, and no drain plug in the skeg keel) That
way I don't have to cut any additional thru-hull holes in my boat.
Judy Blumhorst, DC
WWP-19 #266 "Red Wing"
SF Bay, CA