Lisle;
As others have said, you appear to be looking at the C&C Smile. That is a crack in the bottom paint or fairing compound covering the joint where the top of the lead keel meets the bottom of the fiberglass keel stub. As these things go, yours appears to be pretty minor. On older boats with a swept back keel, I’ve seen gaps at the leading edge of the joint of a quarter inch or so. The probable cause is that the tension on the keel bolts is too low. When the boat was built, a sealing compound was put between the top of the keel and the bottom of the hull, and the bolts were torqued tight. As the boat heels when sailing, the keel flexes slightly to the side, and the bolts tend to lose torque over time. That leads to the crack – the C&C Smile – in the hard paint or fairing compound covering the joint. On older boats with the swept back keel, the crack can be accentuated if the boat is blocked at the back of the keel, or with too much of the boat’s weight supported to far back. Some of the listers have indicated damage to the keel stub from hard groundings, but I don’t see any real evidence of that in your photos. The condition can be cosmetic, or a real problem. Probably cosmetic in well over 90% of the time. You can tell if it is a real problem if you put the boat in the water and water leaks into the bilge from the joint. The solution is to torque the bolts properly, and retorque them periodically. My 38 had a fairly large smile when I bought her in 2003. The bolts got retorqued when I had some keel work done in 2004. Again in about 2009, when we also opened up a small groove along the smile, put 5200 sealer in the groove, faired the joint, and applied a layer of glass cloth from the leading edge of the joint to about 2 feet back to address the cosmetic issues. No smile when the bottom was painted in 2013. A slight crack was evident last winter when I painted the bottom, and a little water seeped out of the 5200 sealer – so I retorqued the bolts again (it had been 8 years after all) and applied another layer of glass before the bottom paint. If you find you have a water leak – which I suspect is not likely given the appearance of the smile, the fix is to drop the keel, apply 5200 as a new layer of sealer, and torque the bolts properly. That stops the leak, but won’t stop the smile (5200, after all, is flexible and that is what causes the smile). Fairing and a fiberglass band over the joint will eliminate the cosmetic issues so long as you retorque the bolts every few years into the future. As others have said, get a good survey. You are already paying a relatively high price for late 80s boat, and I really doubt that putting another $5000 or more into rebidding the keel would be a desirable activity. Bruce; The reason that torqueing the bolts while on the hard is preferable to doing it in the water might be that, when in the water, a goodly portion of the effort is directed at supporting the weight of the keel instead of applying force to the seal. On the hard, with the weight of the boat holding the keel tightly to the stub, you would tend to get a tighter seal and more tension on the bolts, which should slow down the inevitable loosening of the bolts as the keel moves around while sailing – and thus require less frequent torqueing or reduce the development of the next smile. Rick Brass Washington, NC From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Bruce Whitmore via CnC-List Sent: Friday, September 22, 2017 11:54 AM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Bruce Whitmore <bwhitm...@sbcglobal.net> Subject: Re: Stus-List question about a C&C 30 mkii keel Hi Josh, Quick question which I've wrestled with in my mind - Why torque the keel bolts on the hard? Since the keel will spend most of its time hanging from the bottom of the boat in the water, isn't it better to torque the bolts in the specific situation where the stresses will be applied? Thanks for the insights, Bruce Whitmore (847) 404-5092 (mobile) bwhitm...@sbcglobal.net <mailto:bwhitm...@sbcglobal.net>
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