Skeg repair

[Albesaurus]

Finally getting my skeg damage repaired and we have run into what looks like a can of worms. My over zealous fiberglass man seems to think this repair needs to be more extensive than what my common sense is telling me.

A little background first… i bought the boat in winter of 2020. I had a survey done by… lets leave his name out of it. He sounded every inch of the boat while i looked on. No areas of the hull had anything besides a good solid sound. There was a small damage to the very bottom of the skeg but again. No delamination and all solid sound. So I bought the boat and have had 3 full summers and 400 hours of use in her. I have never had any issues. A gem of a boat.

The first winter lay up I noticed the skeg weeps water all winter. Very little but still wet. Again I sounded it. No issues. Then the following winter i was all set to have it repAir but the boat was blocked too low and getting the hauler back out was impossible. Now this winter, after 3 great years i decided to have the boat blocked up at a yard that has a very good reputation. They pulled the engine for me and i brought it to a Roger Sherman to go over it and address corrosion and replace parts that made sense.

While she lays in the yard I scheduled their fiberglass man to investigate the skeg. He came back and said the skeg from bottom to top on the leading edge was 100% saturated. but the rest of the hull no moisture at all. I followed up with my own moisture meter and found the same. He was perplexed though because He says the skeg is soild. No delam and all good sounding. Surprising he said since the boat has been through multiple freeze thaw cycles.
So he gave me a price if $4,000!!! To grind out all and repair. The photos show how far he got before stopping and calling me. Told me i have a big problem and its going to cost alot more.. he says the black filler under the 1” thick glass is soaked and rotted. Has to be all removed, filled with high density foam and glassed up. I was a little pissed because going in we knew the keel had high moisture readings so why wouldn’t he find it?? Anyway. Another story…
I went down there this morning and saw it. I took these photos. I also sounded the filler…. Solid! Not wet and besides the crack you see in the photo. No other voids.
So wouldn’t it be ok to remove just the delamed material, fill with epoxy resin and then repair the area? Its not that I don’t want to fix it right. Its the fact that with the shaft log in there. It may be a huge job and for what?

Has anyone here had a damage or repair to the 28 TE skeg? What did you find in there?
My boat is a 2002 so as far as i know. It has no wood anywhere in the hull, skeg or deaks.

Thanks for any opinions and experience. These are awesome boats. I’ve have my 100 ton ticket since i am 19 years old and i have owed and run many boats in the past. These 28TE’s are worth the repairs. I plan on keeping her as long as i can.

Nick

[Sisu22]

I am admittedly not an expert but what is the issue with a saturated skeg as long as there is no delamination and no coring? Is it just the freeze and thaw cycle that will be the problem?