Coating Bilge Keels with MAS Low Vis Epoxy

|Peter Johnson
Side keels

The schooner's side (bilge) keels are welded up and ready for prep and epoxy coating — here's the process, from grinding back to the final Low Vis coat.

Prepping the keels

The side keels have now been welded up and are in the workshop for prep work, ahead of epoxy coating.

We'll grind the surface using 4.5-inch grinders with a standard dry stone, then clean the surface with Bio-Solv.

Bilge keels for the schooner

Bilge keels for the schooner

Keels of the schooner, ready to be lifted

Keels of the schooner, ready to be lifted

Lifting the bilge keels ready to move into the workshop

Lifting the bilge keels ready to move into the workshop

The coating

Once we're happy with the surface, we'll paint on one coat of MAS Low Vis epoxy, using a scrubbing action, with a mix of 50% fast hardener and 50% medium hardener. This gives us a quick gel time without being too fast to work with.
Peter Johnson

Written by

Peter Johnson

Pete Johnson is the owner of Epoxy Ltd, trading since the late 1990s and supplying MAS epoxy and boatbuilding materials to professional and DIY builders alike, all under the philosophy of "Simple Perfection". When he's not helping customers, he's usually elbow-deep in one of his own projects, from building the 38ft schooner Iracunda from scratch to restoring boats like Junior, a 1950s Yachting Monthly dinghy rescued from the scrap heap. He writes the workshop blog to share the practical, often hard-won lessons learned building and repairing boats with epoxy.