Pearson 10M Swift Fairing Repair
Fairing Repair Back to Projects
Back to Keel Fairing Page...
June and Garland Kitchens were tied to a dock in Telaga Harbor, Malaysia as the Tsunami of December 26, 2004 hit. Docks tore loose and boats were tossed around the harbor like bathtub toys. Swift lost it's keel fairing. The Kitchens repairid it at a yard in Phuket, Thailand and sent photos and documentation of the process they used.

Swift can be seen in the middle of this photo with the dark green hull. The entire dock and the boats tied to it along with Swift are being swept about the harbor as the tsunami wave rolls through. I think of two things looking at this photo. This is normally a well protected harbor and the best way to make a wave look smaller is to point a camera at it.

June and Garland Kitchens' account of the tsunami...
LangkawiTsunami.net . . . Sailors accounts with lots of photos


Comments are from Garland Kitchens description of his repair process...
Photos only
Tsunami damage –fairing ripped off the keel. Only the lead was remaining.
The first layer of inch & half wood secured with 5200 & three 12 mm bolts tapped into the original holes in the lead keel.

Timber was local Thai wood used for boat building keels on fishing boats.

Second layer of inch & half wood secured with epoxy & stainless steel lag screws. 10 mm groove recessed down the centerline for insertion of 10 mm plywood form epoxied in place. These two inch & half timbers increased by three inches the total surface area of the fiberglass to the keel greatly increasing its grip. The original only had two inches on each side.

Plywood held in place with a temporary jig & squared to the back of the keel.

Two stringers, port & starboard epoxied in place with cleat stock. Stringers were shaped to continue the natural cord of the keel. Epoxy resin applied for waterproofing. Bottom stringer angled down aft to match the taper of the base.
Rigid refrigeration foam glued in between stringers using construction adhesive.
Roughing in keel shape with serrated bread knife. (hi tech stuff).

Final shaping with sandpaper on longboard, using ribs to get the final shape. Most sanding was done in the vertical plane.

First layers of glass lay up using heavy cloth & West System epoxy. Bottom overlap was cut off with following lay up going around the base of the keel. Trailing edge was too thin to bend the lay up so overlap was continued.
Number of lay ups varied to build up the juncture between the fairing & the lead keel. The 2-inch wide vertical recess in the lead casting, which the original fairing fitted in, was approximately 3/8 inch deep.
Fairing was built up until flush with lead. The last two layers tapered & overlapped the surface of the keel. We used filler only in the last stages. During the lay up when we had hollows we cut cloth to fix & glassed them in place.
All surfaces were coated with six coats of resin & then primed after curing.

Completed perfect shape. Is this yours or ours ???


Photos only