Safety Concern!!!

[Hunkydory]

I posted this on a thread discussing keelquard in March of this year.

Quote
"I replaced the brass strip with keelquard following our 2007 Alaska cruise. Hit either ice or rock not very hard because it was underwater line and didn't know until pulling from water. Bent the brass over enough to break one of the holding screws. When I removed the brass and rest of screws small amount of water came out of a couple of the screw holes. I debated on installing the keelquard over the brass or leaving it off. Thinking the brass provided very little actual protection and maybe even a hard hit with brass under keelquard could possibly break another holding screw and allowing more water intrusion decided to just totally seal all screw holes and install the keelquard. Not near as concerned about going to shore with bow of boat now. For me at the time it seemed the right thing to do, but who knows the combination of brass and keelquard may actually be better."

Am even more convinced removing brass and just replacing with keelquard is the right thing to do now. To me the amount of brass used is more for looks than protection and the keelquard actually does protect.

These are links to threads discussing keelquard and similar problems here in the past.

http://www.c-brats.com/viewtopic.php?t=11072&highlight=keelquard
http://www.c-brats.com/viewtopic.php?t=8877&highlight=keelquard

Jay

[C-Hawk]

When I had the trouble with the stem guard leaking on Fishtales, here's what I did-

1- Remove the brass and let the water drain
2- Open the access under the the porta-potty storage area and remove the water using a wet-vac, until no more water was showing
3- Set a small, commercial dehumidifier close the the access port and let run for three days to dry out the interier (ran the drain hose out the door and through the stern drain)
4- Inject epoxy into the factory drilled holes
5- Flip the brass 180 degrees and mark out new drill holes (flipping the brass will offset the holes at least 1/2")
6- Drill new holes just short of the length of the screws
7- Dip the screws in 5200 and reinstall

I did not have any more trouble with the stem guard after that.

[localboy]

Sea Wolf Joe's quote from the 2nd posted thread above:

[chromer]

I checked over my 19' today. My brass very nicely intact.

[amy and karl]

Well,

I removed the brass strip on our boat today and I am hoping that the brass strips were that guys only job! There were a couple pieces of masking tape attached to the hull side of the strip directly under a couple screw holes. Whatever was used as a sealant was fully uncured and very gooey.

Still in the process of drying the area out. I won't be able to reinstall until this weekend. We are still grateful this happened where it did. Could have been a lot worse. Also glad there aren't too many things left to worry about below the waterline. Maybe next will be the drain plug.

Karl

[localboy]

And yours is a 2007 also. Great. More reenforcement to remove it all together.

[hardee]

Karl,

Did you remove the brass strip entirely in one piece. I am curious if it retained the curve of the stem, or did it spring out to a straight piece that was held onto the curve by the screws? I saw one other incident where a brass strip came loose. Don't know if there was any leak later as the owners left the dock and we have not regained any contact, even here.

Harvey
SleepyC

[amy and karl]

Hey Harvey,

I removed the stem guard in one piece and it was definitely held in place by the screws. It is as flat as my kitchen floor. I will try to give it a little shape before reinstalling it.

karl

[localboy]

From a PM I sent to Karl last night:

Karl your experience w/ your leaking brass guard was the reason I made the change. I don't like the idea of holes in the bottom of the boat. That seems...uhm..."counter-intuitive". ...it comes with everything for installation. I used a 6'...

The process is this:
-Scuff the gel-coat (it comes with a small 3M brown pad, but I used my DA sander and 220 grit).
-Clean WELL with acetone or similiar.
-Coat with the 3M "primer" that comes with the kit. It comes in a small plastic tube with a glass ampule and sponge tip. Just a thin coat works.
-Wait five minutes
-Start sticking the guard from the top working from center out & down.

It comes with a 3M adhesive already added to the guard, covered in a removable film. It is scored with a strip about 1" wide down the center to make centering/alignment easier; then you peel each side down, adhering as you go. As you do this you use a "burnishing tool" (sorta like a stiff, plastic putty knife that is also supplied) to force the adhisive to stick onto the boat. It took me probably an hour to do and my hands were tired by the time I finished. It's not really hard to do, but lying on your back trying to do it AND make sure it sticks, all while lining it up straight is a PIA. Mine's not PERFECTLY straight, but I did the best I could, by myself, to install it. I have the install DVD from the kit. I'll bring it to FH along with my laptop and you can watch it to get a better idea of what's involved.

Personally, I wouldn't put it OVER the brass guard. I removed mine and used a drill and counter-sink bit to increase the outer diameter of the holes and provide a better/larger surface area. I cleaned them as well as possible, got rid of all the white gunk (4200?) then filled all the holes with thickened epoxy resin. NO MORE HOLES UNDER THE BOAT.