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24 ft Eventide Keel

Posted: Mon December 14th, 2009, 8:10 am
by Mike Brown
Hello
I have finally managed to remove the keel off my 24ft Eventide. I think this is the first time it has been off since it was built in 1960 and boy what a mission. As it is one of the older designs with the smaller keel I was thinking of fixing a 25mm thick plate steel to bottom of cast iron.
Would any one be able to give you a rough idea of the weight of the keel at present. It is cast iron and measures 2500mm or 8ft 2" long x 150mm or 6" wide x 140mm or 5 and a half inches deep.
Also what would be a rough guide to the weight of the 25mm plate steel I add to the bottom?
Now that keel is removed what is the best process to follow re- removing the rust, general cleaning, painting etc ? What is the best filler to use when fairing the steel to cast section.

Kind regards
Mike (New Zealand)

Re: 24 ft Eventide Keel

Posted: Thu February 18th, 2010, 7:27 pm
by Eventide Owners Group
Hello Mike, hope it is not too late to respond.

See the Owners hints and tips page of the website for how I did this over 30 years ago....

Any more queries of this sort, please contact us direct as well,enquiries@eventides.org..uk, as I have only just found this page....

Re the keel, it is a standard 560lb keel, one from the first days of the design in 1958. By 1960 it was updated to 7" deep and 780lb and in 1973 to 10" deep and 1020lb. I would add 500lb of steel, above the old cast iron keel in 1" layers, then make up longer mild steel, galvanized bolts and re seal with plenty of flexible mastic or Sikaflex! It will last another 40 or 50 years! Increase the depth of the bilge keels so they end up about 2" shallower than the main keel and you will have a different boat, but still able to ditch crawl and beach!

good luck with her and send in the pics!

enquiries@eventides.org..uk

Regards,
John