My 30 year old P16 is a bit thin in the skin where the keel meets the beach. Not to the point of getting into the glass, but you do see light along the keels when you look through the ports. I was thinking of adding gelcoat, but am now leaning toward a thin layer of Marine Tex. My hulls are white so it should not be too much of a difference in color.

I am wondering if any of you have tried this and what your experence, (good or bad), has been? Also, how much of the stuff I would need?

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Mike Brady
Sugar Land, TX
Sailing off Magnolia Beach in Lavaca Bay TX
http://358degrees.blogspot.com/
P16 "Pooh Cat"
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My P16 had similar problem with thin skin on keels.
I used it my 84 P16, it looked like someone had done the same prior to me. The small box of Marine Tex (around $20 at West marine) it did about ten feet of inch wide on the keels. Basically keels between trailer rollers.
If I was doing it again I would probably take the boat off the trailer and turn upside down. You might even eliminate the need for sanding that way.



Edited by jby257 on Oct 14, 2011 - 02:36 PM.

Thickened Epoxy is the way to go. Turn it upside down, use some duct tape to build a well down the middle, then pour in, let dry, be happy for years!

if you want to go all the way, hit a layer or two of glass along the keel, sand and fair, then put a fat coat or two or three of gelcoat...nice offseason project.





i painted mine because they were painted, but since yours are gelcoated you can stick with that...you won't regret doing it right!

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bill harris
hattiesburg, mississippi
prindle 16- "BLUE RIBBON"
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Mike marine tex will work fine it is epoxy very easy to use and cheap but Its not the " correct way " but neither is using any other epoxy as your boat is made with polyester resin so to restore it to stock you should use polyester resin and gelcoat. If you are sailing it down at the dike and not using beach wheels the polyester gelcoat will wear down fast. Here is some info http://www.teamseacats.com/2007/12/19/bottom-job/ on doing a bottom job. It sounds like your keels are not worn bad and you are just wanting to add something to slow wear down if it were me I would add a 1" line of marine tex down the keels and spend my time sailing.

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If you are sailing it down at the dike and not using beach wheels the polyester gelcoat will wear down fast.

Texas City Dike and Magnolia Beach both have the advantage of hard pack right to the water's edge. Makes launching easy for a less off-road SUV like mine. The trade-off is the hard pack is tough on the bottom of the keels. If I did replace the gelcoat, it would not stay nice for long. I am hopeful that the marine tex will give me a wear barrier that I can replenish regularly with minimal effort. I am not hard on my boats and I try to make upkeep as simple as possible. So far, that looks like marine tex to me.

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Mike Brady
Sugar Land, TX
Sailing off Magnolia Beach in Lavaca Bay TX
http://358degrees.blogspot.com/
P16 "Pooh Cat"
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Bondo makes a Bondo version with 1/2" long fiberglass strands in it for structural repairs (Autozone carries it, others too). You mix it with the hardener and spread it on like regular bondo, or creamcheese, then sand it down when it hardens. I may try that as I can also see light when looking through the inspection port, and I don't really know how thick the hull is on the bottom.

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John Fricker
Prindle 16
Seabrook, Texas
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Bondo makes a Bondo version with 1/2" long fiberglass strands in it

My only concern in using a product with chopped glass is it takes away the "canary in the coal mine" factor. If I run my finger along the keel and feel glass fibers, I know I have more to worry about then gelcoat. In that case, the repairs with fiberglass and resin are called for. With glass in the product, you would get stray fibers without actually getting into the glass layer of the keel.

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Mike Brady
Sugar Land, TX
Sailing off Magnolia Beach in Lavaca Bay TX
http://358degrees.blogspot.com/
P16 "Pooh Cat"
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I think the bondo with glass is dark green, so you could tell when it wore through to the light tan original glass. Or you could dye it more to a darker color.

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John Fricker
Prindle 16
Seabrook, Texas
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get a quart of gelcoat...sand it back a little, put on a few coats, sand smooth...some labor no matter what product. and if you take a minute , you can match the gelcoat pretty close.

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bill harris
hattiesburg, mississippi
prindle 16- "BLUE RIBBON"
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The first two options I got came from Floyd @ TCDYC
1

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Another option is to spray the gelcoat with a Preval sprayer you can thin it with acetone almost 1:1 and it sprays well just spray it on some cardboard first till the spray is smooth and not splattering. You are going to want to mask off the area due to overspray sand with 220 and wipe clean with acetone before you spray the prep is longer but the results are great.

or
2

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If you are just putting it on to slow down beach wear you could just use some marine tex its cheap & easy to apply. Tape off the keels leaving about a inch gap along the keels exposed mix up some marine tex and apply with a spreader you could sand first with some 220 and wipe with acetone to assure a good bond. A couple trips to the beach and the beach will sand it for you. Like I said its cheap easy and last longer than gelcoat.

I think the kicker is the difference in the sand. Bill I envy you and the secret fleet for the sand you get to play in. I love just walking the beach in the GPT area. Here when you beach, there is impact involved. Our sand is hard to be polite, lots of shell mixed in for good measure. If I was looking to make the keel look perfect, I would take option 1. I have a spray booth at work, I could take several coats and get it right, even with throw away sprayers.

I have to remind myself, we are talking about a part of the boat the sun rarely shines on. I need it to protect against the beaching and moving in and out of the water. So far marine tex is winning, but I think it is a good thread and I'm still listening. Thanks to all for the comments.

By the way Bill, the sails left for Sailcare today. I will let you know how they come out.

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Mike Brady
Sugar Land, TX
Sailing off Magnolia Beach in Lavaca Bay TX
http://358degrees.blogspot.com/
P16 "Pooh Cat"
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this is what i was working with...paper thin at spots, holes at the other spots...rock hard now!

still pleased with my sail care job!



Edited by coastrat on Oct 18, 2011 - 08:36 AM.

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bill harris
hattiesburg, mississippi
prindle 16- "BLUE RIBBON"
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My keels still look good from the outside. If you don't look through the ports you would never guess the gelcoat was thin. I see now why you added glass mat. I would too in that case. Funny thing, the thin gelcoat lets you see the glass mat pretty well. Looks good so I will stick to building up the bottom 1". I figure it might take two of the small kits this time and one every 1-2 years thereafter.

I will post an update on the Sailcare thread when my sails come back. If they get the oil/tar spots off I will be ecstatic. I tried a couple of tricks with no luck. The sails are in pretty good shape other than that.

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Mike Brady
Sugar Land, TX
Sailing off Magnolia Beach in Lavaca Bay TX
http://358degrees.blogspot.com/
P16 "Pooh Cat"
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I used Marinetex in desperation on my Nacra years ago as my beach at the time had babyhead rocks at the waterline on occasion. Worked great although I just had a guy at the beach with the time and skill grind it off and epoxy/gelcoat some of the damaged areas in addition to removing the racing modification from my dagger boxes.

It wears like iron and works great. Couple of watch outs:

Always sand down the area you are going to coat and wipe it down with acetone before you apply the marine tex. This gets rid of crud and any thing that will impede adhesion.

Sand it to shape after it cures. Don't just leave it to the beach to wear it down. Believe it or not troweling it on and leaving it was a common practice on my beach...ugly and hid other issues.