Hello, I have a Alberg 30 that has developed a roughly 15 inch crack along the bottom leading edge of the keel. It looks to be caused by some grounding damage on the very bottom. Attached is a photo of the crack but its at a poor angle and doesn’t show the grounding damage on the bottom. Some grinding fiberglass cloth and epoxy should fix it that I’m not concerned with. My concern is that it’s my understanding the alberg 30’s used cast iron for the ballast? If this is the case is it possible that rust corrosion is the culprit from saltwater intrusion and slowly building and splitting the hull in half?! And if so, when I fix the damage is the crack just going to develop again? Is there any way to address the ballast corrosion if that is the case? Has anyone ever come across something like that? Any ideas is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Mike
Alberg 30 keel crack
- atomvoyager
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Re: Alberg 30 keel crack
Yes the internal ballast on the A30 is iron supposedly encased in polyester resin thickened with vermiculite or similar. I haven't seen any bulges in the keel from expanding corroded iron on any of the 10 or so A30s I've worked on. You can drill a few, say 3/8" holes into the area before patching and see if any rusty water comes out. If not, it's probably OK. Water can get into any voids either from outside cracks or inside from the bilge. When given the option I always seal the inside of the roughly glassed in ballast with more fiberglass and resin.
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- Bottom Sanding Grunt
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Re: Alberg 30 keel crack
I would think moisture or water leaking in around ballast and then freezing would crack the fibreglass way sooner than a grounding or rust pushing it’s way out of there!!Previous owner of #561 drilled holes at lowest point of bilge and down the outside of keel to allow for any moisture to drain if it were to get in while it sat on the hard. He was smart man!!! I have removed original glass that was covering the ballast inside and cleaned out all loose bits on the side. I then liberally applied rust stopper (wasn’t much rust) followed by an inch or so of concrete (that what seemed to be there)on top and down sides. It is currently -30 Celsius and no bulge!! I used moisture meter and Herman Nelson style heaters to control dryness. .I will glass it over as suggested by atomvoyager and have yet to decide on wether to do an integral water tank in bilge or a bladder bag!
- atomvoyager
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Re: Alberg 30 keel crack
Flexible tanks are a lot easier to install and I've used them over the years. But I stopped using the cheap plastimo tanks because in my experience you have at best a 50/50 chance they won't leak within a couple years. The more expensive tanks using thicker plastic have a much better reputation.
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- Bottom Sanding Grunt
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- Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2020 2:04 pm
- Boat Name: Ino
- Boat Type: Alberg 30
Re: Alberg 30 keel crack
Good to know. Thanks for the information!!