new owner? banging arounf of keel in trunk in light chop

[bernardi]

1st firberglass sailboat for me relatively new to sailing. Hit some boat wakes and keel banged around in bunk. I also noticed a fiberglass repair near keel bolt. Aluminum support on port side of trunk moved up and down with clanking. Boat has been in the water at the lake for last 5 years no leaks evident no bilgepump haven't visually inspected keel yet keel cable snapped at winch still has to be fixed.
Is clanking of keel normal?
Keel inspection hole is uncovered I will have to manufacture something can I seal it up wellor should I expect to have to open it back up frequently?
I believe the boat comes with 150 genoa but no place I can see rigged for us where amd how would I rig that.

[JimW]

I think some keel clunking is normal. Your keel bolt might be worn but this is apparently a pretty big job to fix. I have a mk II, which doesn't have the aluminum supports so I can speak to movement in that. Get a new cable from sjsailboats.com and give it a try.

I used the original Clark inspection hole cover but added hinges so that I can easily flip it open to see the top of the keel.

keel inspection cover

DSC_1711.jpg (36.51KiB)Viewed 16783 times

I find this arrangement pretty handy and wouldn't want to fix a cover that required tools to remove.

[bernardi]

Thanks for the picture do you have a latch to hold the lid tight on inspection hole? Ive got a board screwed over inspection hole temporarily I need to use some type of bushing to stop splashing of water through stop bolt hole.

[JimW]

No latch to hold the cover in place. I flip it down on some self-adhesive foam material I put around the opening.
There are supposed to be gaskets on the stop bolt (I think--mine was at some point crudely epoxied in place).
One thing that seems to make a difference with water coming up the keel trunk during sailing is the Dacron keel gasket--make sure yours is in good condition.

[cklamp]

I followed some Fleet 1 member's leads and cut out a hole in the original Clark Teak and routed out one of the corners to install a piece of plexiglass to be able to see the top of the keel. No hinges necessary.

Later
C