Damaged keel

This compound ( also on my keel ) has also flattend the aurface on the side off the keel.

I think it is cosmatic, and you will see it if you remove the compund on the sides off the keel at that place.

The hanse is a very strong boat but beside that wenn you hit the rocks it will flex and then the compound on the side off the keel hul joint will come off.

I would like to see the result wenn the compound is taken off on this damages.

Gr Marcel

Stainless steel keel bolts when exposed to sea water in a anerobic envionment suffer corossion.

That is typical of a keel which has been moved and allowed sea water access to form a well of sea water low in oxygen.

Any responsible surveyor should advise insurance company that  only remedy for this keel is removal, inspection, and re-sealing this damaged keel with approved sealant.

Have a look at the evidence

http://coxeng.co.uk/metallurgy/crevice-corrosion/

Im not a surveyor,  but I designed equipment for North Sea Oil, and saw instances of structural failures due crevice corrosion.

I'm married to a Material Scientist. She charges too much to ask her analysis?

A friend was having increasingly serious water ingress on his boat last year and asked me for help; it was plainly though the keel bolt areas.  Turned out he too had bounced off a rock two years before and like your friend had been told at the time it was 'cosmetic'. Going with him to a dockyard that's professional enough for Navy contracts he was told that at the very least the bolts should have been withdrawn for testing and that they very strongly recommended that the keel be dropped, checked and re-attached.  The cost - a staggering £11000 for his 37 footer, although this included making good the unseen damage to the keel fixtures and attachment points.  It was pointed out that the keel would have been flexing more and more throughout the previous 2 seasons increasing the damage so timely in-depth checks are essential in such cases.  They'd seen a number of grounding-damaged keels and their only surprise was that more keels don't fail dramatically.  While such failures thankfully remain rare, the yard (after taking his money!) wondered how many are just 'hanging on' out there hidden behind putty and other gloop.    

There's no way I would go to sea in a boat with such obviously serious damage without either dropping the keel or at the least having it radiographed if feasible given the areas involved.   It may be that the yard and Insurance Company are indeed correct and my opinion is well OTT but they are literally asking your friend to bet his life on it.  It would be interesting to see if their position would change if they were warned - in writing - of their liability in law should they be wrong.  There again, your friend is still betting his life - not much satisfaction if all goes wrong! Having lived 7 fantastic years in Norway I'm well aware that prices tend to be higher in Scandinavia - but I don't think you guys value your lives any the lesser!

MVH

Iain

 

Ratbasher and Perry have made some points, which reflects my own worries about the damage.

The incident happened in the summer of 2019 in the Swedish skärgård, and the owner asked me for an advice when he discovered the damage in april 2020. I adviced to let a professional evaluate it. The shipyard and the insurance company opted for a repair. Two weeks ago, I found the old keel-drawing on my PC and sent it to the owner. He was of the opinion, that the keel bolts were penetrating the depht of the keel, and seeing that this is not the case, he again asked if I thought that there was reason for concern. I never had much confidence in the repair, so therefore I asked for other opinions in this forum. (If it was my boat, I would be worried when sailing).

There has been no water inside the boat and no visible cracks.

My concerns are:

Metal fatigue due to pendulum movement of the keel during 8 months.

Salt water inside the keel, and possibly around the bolts.

Possible stretching of the keel bolts and thereby weakening in the metal.

I do not know if the insurance guy or the shipyard are aware of the design of the keel.

Some years ago, a danish blue-water sailor (S/Y Petra) lost the keel en route to the Azores, so it can happen. It was a Bavaria with smaller keel bolts than those of the Hanse 370, but anyway.

I have asked the owner for more photos, and a fuller description of the damage and the repair that was made. I have not seen the actual damage, just photos.

To Marcel: I admit, that the connection seems to be covered with compound. This is not the case with my 400, here is just 2-3 mm of glue between the GFK bottom and the keel, and no compound is hiding the connection. I suppose, that the 370 has the same low distance between GFK and cast iron.

See also my thread "Bad keel material".