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Okay, so more to report - and of course more question.

The keel has been pulled out - again. It is MUCH easier to do once you know what your doing - If the keel needs to be "pounded" down, due to likely silicon stopping it from "falling" then the some things to keep in mind. DO NOT hit the threaded rod with a steal hammer ; you will trash the threads, and cause your self more stress in the long run. SO if your going to hit it, put a wood block on top. However, there is also little room in the area to swing a hammer - the solution is a bigger hammer- AKA a sledge- wood on top and drop a sledge the 4 inch or so that you can manage in there- and she pops right out!

With the keel out- I have sanded it a bunch - the gel coat will come off- I would not call it easy, it is clearly more tough then "paint" but with a belt sander will come off. I was then trying to thin down the board itself. Sanding fiberglass is slow. I was using 40- maybe 60 grit to start - but I blew up that belt, and we using 80 grit after the .. it was about 2 hours of sanding, and I am not sure I even made a dint it in.

I will give now a second warning if sanding gelcaot and fiberglass you MUST cover your arms, and use gloves --- any exposed skin will be greatly irritated by the "dust" of the glass shards. This will cause you to much discomfort, and you will not be able to sleep - then your girlfriend will not be able to sleep, then SHE will cause you much pain .. so you end up on the couch with the dog, but that is okay , cause you love that dog. I feel I am getting a bit off topic.

So safety first on the sanding the fiberglass - for real on this one .

Now- I have decided that I am not likely to re-gelcaot it until I am sure it is working, the sander, and some belts are going with me, so if it doesn't work, then I can sand off more . Is there a risk in using the board with out gel coat on it ... it is my understanding that fibre glass will not swell with water, so this should be fine right?

Kev.

I would make sure that the board fills and empties water rapidly, before you remount it. The board does not have wood in it, that I am aware of and must fill with water to drop, or it will just float.

~Rich

there is something that "rattels" around in there when I tip it.

Why does it fill with water? why is it not "solid" is there a weight issue. It is not the way I would have designed it, can someone give me some back ground?

- would a good enough test of its "water-fill-ability" be to just toss it in the lake, and see if it sinks after say , .. 3 seconds?

I plan to take my shop vac and place it over each hole, and plug other alternating holes, to try and suck out what ever might be in there.

Kev.

PS- thank you guys so much for your support, I really appreciate it - I have been feeling a little bummed out by this whole ordeal, and this is helping me so much - and I haven't brought up the water that is accumulating in the bilge yet ..

The board fills with water to have the necessary weight to sink. While it could be filled with anything or even made of lead, water has the substantial advantage of draining out and making the board very light when it's in the up position. Most fill materials (except metals) are either lighter than water or the same density as water, and would therefore have no advantage over it but would have the disadvantage of remaining heavy when lifted.

So basically there's no reason to use any fill material other than water unless you're going to go to something as heavy or heavier than iron, and something that heavy will affect stability when it's up.

Its a very clever design actually.

OKAY! So I got it fixed, I attacked it with a belt sander, some 40 git , some 60 or was it 80 --- either way it was gravel on paper. The fiber glass was slow going but gell coat came off pretty fast.

it was easy to hold the sander "parallel" to the axis of the board, and find the high spot of the tear drop shape.

I didn't re-coat it at that point, but the gel coat is a 2 part "epoxy like paint" that I will worry about later.

I Was out on the water this weekend, and it came down both times with NO issues at all. It appears my suffering has not been with out gain, the keel works now. the engine also preformed okay , and I am left only with some lingering doubts of its reliability.

I have also lost a lot of respect for the power boat !@#$% !@#!%% , they run around like they own the place, and heaven forbid if you want to take a few mins to drop your mast in the thunder storm, before driving in to the power lines with it ...yea, I was as out of the way as I could be. sorry you couldn't get your 80000$ truck in place to pull out your 100000 boat. for about 2 mins.

kevinnem wrote:I have also lost a lot of respect for the power boat !@#$% !@#!%% , they run around like they own the place, and heaven forbid if you want to take a few mins to drop your mast in the thunder storm, before driving in to the power lines with it ...yea, I was as out of the way as I could be. sorry you couldn't get your 80000$ truck in place to pull out your 100000 boat. for about 2 mins.

Oh; did we have some issues at the boat ramp?

Just smile and watch for firearms

Well, since you asked ... yea. I was stressed out --- I will jump to the punch line -

I got really flustered with all the people waiting, and yelling and pi$$ off (we didn't take taht much longer then anyone else to get out , and we pulled well off to lower the mast there was plenty of room for people to turn around).

but anyway -- anyone else know the sound that your rudders and engine make when you are dragging them accross the concrete?