Crestliner VT18 Keel Crack

[Bassquatch01]

Found out I have a crack somewhere along the keel of my crestliner after my last tournament. Had too much water in the bilge area. Decided to put the plug in at the house after a few days of the boat drying and fill it up and found water leaking from the keel of the boat. Question I have for any crestliner owners is how to remove the aluminum keel protector from the boat without destroying it? If the answer is it's just going to have to be replaced as well that's fine I can just put a new keel strip on, but I need to find the crack first so I can get someone to weld it. Thanks in advance.

[Tim Kelly]

I think the keel strip is formed aluminium that the sheets of ali are welded to, so don't think it can really be removed.

https://www.crestliner.com/crestliner-advantage.html

[dwtaylor]

A local guy had a similar failure on the same model boat and ended up totalling his boat. It was a 3' long crack that propagated outside the protected area, unsure how big yours is.

He worked with the local crestliner dealer as well as his insurance agent on the boat.