Post 8 - An Overview of Progress During the Last Year

It's been almost a year since I have posted last.  Current status is as follows:

The Keels have been completely refurbished:

Cracks in my Vivacity Sailboat Keel

Pouring the Lead Ballast

First of the Ballast, removed from forms

Bottom Layer of Ballast for each of the Keels

Interior Shot of Keel Top, after all lead
has been placed and mortar poured 

• There were numerous small cracks on the exterior of the keels.  I widened most of these (so they were a "V" shaped groove), and then I filled them with epoxy resin thickened with structural fillers.  
• After patching, I coated the exterior keel section with several layers of interlux interprotect (a barrier coating), and then three layers of anti-fouling paint.
• I dug out most of the steel punchings from the interior of the keels.  A small amount remained in the bottom that I just couldn't get out. I was having such a tough time of it that I was afraid I was doing more damage than good by getting that last little bit.  I painted a couple coatings of un-thickened epoxy on the remainder at the bottom, in order to hopefully seal them from any water.  
• I then melted scrap lead and poured it into wood forms that matched the interior dimensions of the bottom of the keel ( this represented about 250 lbs of the 760 lbs of ballast that I was to add.  I set these into a bedding of mortar in the keels.  I then added the rest of the scrap lead and mortar to the inside of the keels.  My rough calculations show that I am about 25 pounds too light, but since the weight is now situated much lower in the keels than originally, I'm not too worried.  I poured the final bit of mortar into the keels about two weeks ago.  I will probably wait about another month for it to dry out more before I cap the interior top of the keels with fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin.
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