Has anyone else got / had a problem with the encapsulated steel punchings going rusty and swelling up?

The top 25mm or so of the black bitumen in my boat seems to have got wet from the hatch leaking. This has caused the punchings to rust, which has in turn made the ballast swell up and push the locker sides in. I am not yet sure if it has effected the keel case going to investigate that latter.

Any ideas of how to fix this?
General thoughts?
Is this common?

Is there a nice easy way to stop the hatch leaking? Water appears to go around the channel and then run in by capilary action across the under side of the perspex hatch.

Update Feb 08

When further investigated the ballast in the 8 compartments alongside and behind the keel case were all rusty to some extent. The decicision was made to remove all of the ballast and replace it with lead.

What a Job!

Through a combination of power tools, cold chisels, big hammers and bruised hands most of it is now out, but what a pig of a job. One tip for anyone having to do this job, try to get down to the layer close to the hull, the punchings lay flat there and provide a shear line which does enable slightly bigger pieces to be removed at a time.

So now to buy 360kg of lead just as the lead market has gone mad....great!

Further update as we progress.

Stuart.

I was really shocked and sorry to hear of your problems Stuart. What a job it must have been getting all the ballast out and not something you would have expected to deal with, having had a survey. The state of the hull ballast would be one of the first things to check, so there must be a strong case against this surveyor.

It is not much consolation to you, but does serve as a reminder to have a regular look under the floor.

I have seen other do this job and I know I have read somewhere that there is an advantage to add a few more kg of ballast to increase stiffness. I met a couple who were in their sixties+ who where doing to sail down to spain in thier 26 and added considerable more lead.
Regards Jasper

Im sure that would be a good idea for a boat which was going to be cruised over long distances. I have toyed with the idea of adding a lead shoe to the keel, maybe putting 100kg of the ballast there rather than in the bottom of the boat. In the end I decided that the extra strain on the lifting wire etc this probably wasnt a good idea.

As I intend to race my 26 I am going to start off with just replacing the 363kg in the bilge, with the slight advantage gained from the ballast being more concentrated where its needed.

I just have one compartment left to chip out now so hopefully it will all be out this weekend, at last!

Update

Well all of the old puchings ballast is out now, life lesson learnt, dont take the word of anyone when you are quite capable of looking yourself!

For info, the cheapest lead we found was roofing lead from the local builders merchant and it took 10kg of epoxy to fix it all in place. Not an inconsiderable cost and loads of work, but its a realy good job. All the ballast is now concentrated around the keel case and must have both lowerd the COG and placed the weight closer to the centre of the the boat.
Other jobs undertaken include, re locating the battery and totaly refitting the chain plates / U bolts.

All the best

SP

Hi all

Well I am glad to report that Redshank is now back in the water!

I took her out for the first time on Wednesday evening for TCYC's first evening race, 15 knots of wind gusting to 25, we were late so didnt have time to put a reef in.
Wow! after the Jaguar 21 she is so stable and fast, we hit 6 knots on several occassions and sailed upwind at between 4.5 and 5 knots. I had a few problems with the main sail controls (kicker rigged wrongly and outhaul not holding) so couldnt flatten it properly which ment I was spilling wind and pinching most of the time upwind. Despite this we were only 12% off first O/A and won IRC3, not bad for the first time out of the river.

All the chipping out ballast and £1k spent on lead and epoxy was well worth it.

SP

I am glad to hear you had a successful maiden voyage, after all the problems getting her shipshape. Well done! :D

Just to finish this thread off.

We seem to have got the possition of the ballast about right by concentrating it in the spaces either side of the keel and the space directly behind the keel. The boat floats level so my calculations with battery positon etc must be ok too!

Redshank has had a great season racing again after many years as a cruising boat. We have won one series and been second in the other three, two on equal points, just lost on the tie breaks! I think we have also got the lowest points overal for the season.

What a fantastic little yacht the Evolution 26 is, we have bashed upwind MUCH quicker that suposedly much faster boats in a chop, plained / surfed down wind at 11 knots in 30 knots of wind, with the full main up and had a monster broach just afterwards!

Just got to fix the deck and hatch leaks now!

Stuart.