Fiberglass encased sailboat keel

[odinohi]

Looks to be around 1500 lbs. the last fiberglass encases keel I had was 600 lb. That one was done in three cuts. Probably gonna go tomorrow with my skill saw and try to get fiberglass off. What should I offer the guy? Thinking about 300.00?

[DaveyDug]

Not sure what you should offer, but make sure to post pictures for the rest of us to drool over.

[bhn22]

Offer him a hundred bucks to start. He will probably turn it down, but he will get straight to what price he really wants for it pretty quickly. Then you can start the negotiations.

[zuke]

Tell him he need's to pay you for the hassle of disposal

[SciFiJim]

The fact that it is encased in fiberglass lowers the value. The fiberglass would have to be removed before a scrapyard would take it. Subtract the cost of the labor to do so when making an offer.

[Bzcraig]

I would offer to take it to the junk yard after your done relieving him of the hassle.

[Bulldogger]

Tell him it's lead, which is Hazmat according to the EPA and the State of California, offer him to pay you $100 to remove it and dispose of it properly...


Worth a shot...


BDGR

[dg31872]

I would say that, first off, you cannot be sure what is in the fiberglass. It may be a gold mine, or it could be cement!
I bought some sail boat "lead" from someone a year ago, and it was mostly zinc. Use caution.

[Tackleberry41]

I would imagine it depends on who built it. As just said some are going to go with cheaper materials. My dad built a steel hulled sailboat, I know he used pure lead, as I remember him bringing home the long bent up sections of telephone insulator to melt down. This was the late 80s tho. Cutting away that much fiberglass would a PIA.

[odinohi]

I went and used my skill saw to make a few cuts. PITA. If the guy will take 200-300 for it I will try to heat the fiberglass with my weed burner torch and hopefully I will be able to start prying. If it's 1500 pounds of lead (and it is lead) I'll sell it for 1.00 lb and use that money to pay for a new chainsaw and a different 2700 lb keel.

[Buck Neck It]

Be careful. Fiberglass burns and bottom paint is really, really nasty stuff. It kills barnacles and can do a number on you too. Fwiw, the local boatyard has used a power washer with sand injection to cut away damaged fiberglass. It seems to work great, no dust to breathe.

[Just Duke]

http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/en/alloy13.htm

[Just Duke]

1500 pounds sounds really too light.

[odinohi]

Duke, I'm just taking a guess at the weight. It's around 3 foot long and 2.5 high. Not sure what brand boat it came off of

[triggerhappy243]

I would want a core sample first.

[David2011]

1500 pounds sounds really too light.

Totally depends on the size and weight of the complete boat. A 22-24 foot or so sailboat would weigh about 3000-4000 pounds so 1500 would be about right. The keel on a 50 foot Beneteau weighs around 16,000 or 18,000 IIRC.

Some keels are cast iron. Take a magnet!

David

[MarkW]

My sailboat has essentially scrap lead pipes encased in fiberglass, another owner of the same model of boat told me that his ballast turned out to be pig iron so it can change even from boat to boat. I would be tempted to take a cordless drill and drill a few holes to make sure that it is lead all the way through. If you are able to do so, my suggestion for removing the fiberglass is to build a small bonfire over the keel and let it burn Baby. If you can pick it up with a tractor bucket or forklift and shove some cinder blocks or large rocks/small boulders under it you can get most of it off in one burn and not have to turn it over. It takes an awful lot of heat for 3/4 ton of lead, but another option to think about is using enough wood and for a long enough time to melt the keel, then when it is all cool you can break up the hardened puddle with a sledge hammer.

[odinohi]

When I made the cuts with the skills saw the lead chipped away. The keel I got last year had some fire brick banded together in the middle of the keel. I got tired of buying chains and bars for the chainsaw so I dug a little hole in the dirt under it and torched away with my weed burner. Didn't take that long or much propane to get around 400 lbs melted off. That worked much better then I thought it would. Still have some torching to do on that puppy.