Moody 36 (80s) Dropping the keel on a 1980 Moody 36

[Steve Kemp]

Hi All and thanks for allowing me on here as a guest while I contemplate buying a Moody.

I am looking at a 1980 fin keel Moody 36 that is neglected but seems sound. One obvious critical factor is the keel, can anyone advise what would be involved in dropping , inspecting and re-bedding the keel - presumably with new keel bolts having done that? Would it be a useful thing to do? The existing keel is very pitted and corroded, but there is plenty of steel still there. The join to the hull looks reasonable - ie it's not a thing of beauty but there's no obvious major issues.

Are there ay other potential gotchas I should be looking out for on a boat like this? It has been ashore for several years. The engine may not be worth resurrecting, what options are there for a simple re-engine?

There is no obvious sign of osmosis. The gel coat seems sound except for an area with deep crazing and evidence of ugly patching on the transom, any comments on what might be happening there ?

Many thanks

 

[Peter Wright]

Hi Steve,

To take your questions in turn:

Nothing special to Moodys about the task of dropping and rebedding the keel, just remember that you will need adequate support for both the keel and the hull, and the ability to move one of the two parts up and down, remembering that each weighs several tons. Your pst doesn't explain why you want to do this and you even say "The join to the hull looks reasonable" which excludes the most common reason for rebedding the keel. Moodys persisted longer than most builders with carbon steel studs to mount the cast iron keels, I believe because of concerns about crevice corrosion in austenitic stainless steels, so it is normal to find the tops of the studs, the backing plates d the nuts corroded in the bilge. This always looks worse than the reality, because when steel rusts it produces 8 times as much rust as the steel lost so it can often be remedied by cleaning up with a wire brush and repainting with a tough finish such as Hammerite. If there is significant loss of metal from the nuts, another option is to replace the nuts and backing plates one at a time, while taking care not to disturb the joint or the seal of the studs in the holes through the grp. Only in very rare cases is a stud found to have suffered corrosion below the top part exposed in the bilge and I suspect this is a result of sufficient failure of the keel / hull joint to allow sea water access to the stud.

The best remedy for a badly pitted cast iron keel is to grit blast, then pressure wash with fresh water to get as much salt as possible out of the pores of the casting, then blast lightly again. You can then apply 3 or more coats of a good rust and moisture tolerant epoxy primer to seal the cast iron. This won't last forever, but it has survived 10 years on our boat, except for the bottom couple of centimetres of the keel which I foolishly used to plough a furrow along a Dutch canal a few years ago. No need to drop the keel for this treatment, unless you need to attend to the top face of the keel which bonds onto the grp hull.

Other issues - Take a good look at the security of how the chain plates are secured to the hull - while I don't know this model, several later Moodys, the chainplates pass through a slot in the side deck and are bolted to a marine ply part bulkhead below the deck, this part bulkhead being bonded to the hull down to the bilge. The deck is sealed by a stainless steel plate screwed onto the deck around it. If the sealantfails, deck water can get down through the slot to the marine ply part bulkhead causing it to rot and sometimes it also gets into the deck core around the slot. Once the part bulkhead is well rotted the bolts securing the chainplate can pull through it resulting, at worse, in a loss of the rig. When inspecting the boat, it's rarely possible to see the state of the part bulkheads because they are hidden behind beautiful cabinetry down below. The easiest test I know of is to use a straight edge, such as a steel rule on deck around the chainplates - if you detect any unnatural bulges - that warrants further investigation imho.

For a new engine, take a look around the usual suspects, Yanmar, Beta, Volvo o etc.Be prepared for a shock to your cheque book.

The most likely cause of the razing / ugly repair is collision damage but you have at least seen it so you will know better than anyone attempting to answer that Q.

To learn more on all these issues, it's worth signing up as a temporary member here - this website is a mine of good technical data on care and maintenance of Moodys and it's not expensive.

Peter.

 

[Steve Kemp]

Thanks. I have no particular desire to drop the keel, and I definitely don't want to if it's not necessary, I just felt it was something that I should probably do! I like the idea of inspecting the bolts and perhaps pulling a couple to check their condition.

I will take a careful look at the chainplates.

I plan to go and spend a day this week having a serious poke around, if it still looks possible I will be back with some more questions and probably temporary membership!

Thanks again


Steve