Black Magic

Mekicevica's keel is now coated with POR-15. This is an anti-rust coating that seals the metal in a hard shell (of polyurethane, I believe). More information on the POR-15 web site.
The tricky thing about this coating (apart from the fact that it cannot be removed from anything it comes in contact with) is that the application has two stages:
In the wet stage you use copious amount of water to degrease, rinse, apply the etching primer, and rinse again.
In the second, dry stage everything has to be bone dry, otherwise the very expensive paint will be ruined.
It was hard work, but after three coats of POR-15 the result looks impressive.

Black magic. No more rust on Mekicevica's keel again. Ever.

With the risk of seeming to wear braces and belt, next I will overcoat with epoxy, and finally anti-fouling.

Blasted

I found a place near home where they sand-blasted Mekicevica's keel, for less that would have cost me to rent the equipment. Moreover, like this I don't risk being sent to the dog house by the First Mate or becoming even less popular with the  neighbors because of the mess I would make.

It is really nice to see Mekicevica's keel so clean.

Mekicevica's keel nicely clean, almost as in the day it was cast.

The corrosion of iron starts really quickly. In the time it took me to drive back home, less than ten minutes, the first spots of rust were starting to appear. So I have to hurry to treat the surface.

New Centre Plate

The new centre plate is done. Here it is together with the old, badly-corroded plate.

The new centre plate (22 kg) and the old one (15 kg)

The new plate was cut from 8mm mild steel by Marcel Harting. He has a great shipyard (http://www.jachtwerfharting.nl/) and is really helpful. It was well worth driving over 200 km each way.
To my surprise, it even fitted perfectly without any further adjustments! It will raise and lower smoothly, especially after I have coated it in epoxy. The additional 7 kg of ballast cannot do any harm either.
Below is a drawing of the plate. Feel free to e-mail me if you want to have the Google SketchUp file.

Drawing of the centre plate.

I hope to be able to get the keel sand-blasted in a couple of days and then the coating will start.

Keel Hole Surgery

Thirty-four years worth of bottom paint were finally scraped off Mekicevica's keel.
The cast iron is not too bad. What I initially took for flaking, rusty iron turned-out to be rust-stained chalk deposit. But in a few spots the rust was starting to go beyond the benign surface corrosion. The cleaning of the keel will be finished by sand-blasting.
While I wait for delivery of materials, I have re-threaded the holes of the bolts. The original 3/8" holes are now converted to M10 holes. (Vive le système métrique!)

Re-threading the holes for the keel bolts.