The ole Prop/Rated Rpm thread

[Sonic Boom]

Photos from my buddy draining his keel yesterday. Drilled three holes and would wager 100% of the water still doesn’t come out of the original foam. Wish I could post the video here

 

[The Hatt]

@Sonic Boom i know it’s hard to be an armchair mechanic but I’m starting to notice some water seeping from what looks like a painted over small access hole in the bilge between the engines. It’s not running out but after a day of sitting a small amount will run down and rest at the low point in the bilge.

What other symptoms have you noticed one hour 3 boats that all had water in the keel?

Did you see a drop in rpms at wot? Did you see any water accumulate in the bilge? Boat sitting lower in the water?

Wondering if it’s worth addressing quickly or can I wait u til the next haul out (probably next winter)

 

[Eddieclemons]

After a lot of discussions with really good people here, talking with a past owner, and doing as much evaluation and inspection as possible, I have decided that I'm just over propped when running medium to heavy. I plan to re-pitch when given the opportunity. But yes, I do believe that I probably have some water to keel but it was not the cause of my issues.

 

[Sonic Boom]

@Sonic Boom i know it’s hard to be an armchair mechanic but I’m starting to notice some water seeping from what looks like a painted over small access hole in the bilge between the engines. It’s not running out but after a day of sitting a small amount will run down and rest at the low point in the bilge.

What other symptoms have you noticed one hour 3 boats that all had water in the keel?

Did you see a drop in rpms at wot? Did you see any water accumulate in the bilge? Boat sitting lower in the water?

Wondering if it’s worth addressing quickly or can I wait u til the next haul out (probably next winter)

The biggest symptom we noticed was the "Hatteras smell". Never noticed a reduction in performance since it's a gradual decline. The first boat we found by accident, after drilling a hole water started shooting out from the engine room floor. We cut an inspection hole in the latest boat and thought this keel was dry....after observing and digging out the foam we still found water trapped in there. Pumped out enough water to raise the water line two inches. Another symptom would be the gradual water line change based on previous bottom jobs and the tape line being raised by previous owners.
Doubtful it needs to be addressed quickly.

 

[The Hatt]

Appreciate the insight we’ll probably handle it at the next haul out, or take a small hole saw and see how much wet foam there is.

 

[The Hatt]

Reporting back with some new pictures.
The paint / thin fiberglass that was covering the hole in the above photos has rotted away. I dug that out and dried the shallow hole. Came back a day later and found the hole full of water. No rain, no boat washing, no showering.
Dried it out again today and will look Tomrrow, but wondering if it’s worth rigging up a shop vac per the @jimrosenthal method for a week to see if I can dry this out better.

Or should I just marinetex over the hole and be done with it till the next haul out.

 

[Eddieclemons]

Reporting back with some new pictures.
The paint / thin fiberglass that was covering the hole in the above photos has rotted away. I dug that out and dried the shallow hole. Came back a day later and found the hole full of water. No rain, no boat washing, no showering.
Dried it out again today and will look Tomrrow, but wondering if it’s worth rigging up a shop vac per the @jimrosenthal method for a week to see if I can dry this out better.

Or should I just marinetex over the hole and be done with it till the next haul out.

Where is that hole located??? I still wonder if I have water in me keel. In between my engines, just behind my my 300 gallon aft fuel tank I have a ac sump with bilge pump. Originally there were several holes in the bottom of the sump. I vacuumed them out one winter and fiberglassed them over. I still would like to know if I have any water under the center ER walkway floor.

 

[The Hatt]

@eddieclemmons it’s right between the engines in the center of engine room bilge floor. 70s 42c.

There was a thin piece of fiberglass? Which made up the floor Followed by white foam about an inch below the fiberglass.

 

[rustybucket]

I had some water in my keel as well. 1986 52c. I cut an access hole in the engine hall floor a few feet forward of the cockpit access ladder. You want your hole to be over the deepest part of the keel. Dug out the very wet foam and hollowed out a 2"-ish channel using a stick of pvc and some long pry bars to break up the foam and remove. We pulled about 20-ish gals out on the first suck session. Then over the next few days as the foam slowly drained water down we prolly pulled out another 10-ish gals.

After we got the bulk of the water out I ran a dry bilge line with a foam filter down in the hole and hooked it to my dry bilge system. So it gets sucked out once a day while at the dock and a couple times a day when we are fishing.

I would imagine almost all the older keel boats have at least some water in the keel. There are too many holes, old holes...etc for there not to be at least some water in them. Every pound counts so I really feel that keeping the keel dry is nothing but a good thing.

And yes, the first water that came out was VERY stinky.

On your propping issue. Veem's are great. After switching to veems the boat was smoother, more responsive and I hit my rpm numbers. I would question the 5 blade recommendation. From my understanding 5 blades really don't do much for you until you hit the 1k hp mark. Anything under that and I'd stay with 4 blades. So maybe get a second opinion from a different prop shop or question your shop more on why they recommend 5 blades.