Hi All,

Hopefully someone has a bit of experience on this issue. I have a an early Robin Yachts hull that I bought used and sailed for about 2 years. I removed the ridiculously heavy deck (about 3lbs) and weighed the stripped hull, rudder, and poured ballast. She came in at only 19.5lbs. I'm guessing that the hull was about 2.5lbs (Message to Skip already sent to confirm)

As I'm installing king planks, and ribs,(She previously had none) and a new light weight deck. It appears that I'm going to be excessively light, and following the Rhinehart diagrams for the deck structure, my waterline is likely to fall below 42 inches with the current amount of ballast.

Any good ideas in adding ballast to the orginal pour. I have yet to attend a pour party, and the current pour has a top coating of epoxy.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Chris
PMYC

Check Rick West's Web suite, think I saw something where he added
what he called "Big Foot" or "Baby Foot".

Chris,

I have accomplished adding lead to boat two different ways. The simplest way is to add sheet lead directly over the existing ballast. I bought a fishing weight lead pot to melt small amounts of lead into wood trays to make the sheet lead. Cut to fit and epoxy in place. The second way is to use the same fishing weight lead pot and pour lead directly over the existing ballast. You will need to install stops at the ends of of your proposed pour and do this work in a tank or snow drift to cool the hull and lead.

Hope that helps.

Mark

If you are looking for sheet lead to do as Mark Rinehart(who else would have an on-line name of "Pink66") suggested, try calling a local X-Ray equipment supplier. They have sheet lead in 1/16 and 1/8 thicknesses. If they are doing a remodel, sometimes you can even get the lead for free.

Ask them if they have any damaged sheets. They line walls with it and if it is freight damaged, they can't use it.

Hope this helps

Paul P

"You will need to install stops at the ends of of your proposed pour and do this work in a tank or snow drift to cool the hull and lead."

<font face="Georgia"></font id="Georgia"><font face="Impact"></font id="Impact"><font face="Impact"></font id="Impact"><font size="3"></font id="size3"><font color="pink"></font id="pink">"Snow Drift." What's That Pinky?

PB,

Yea, snow drift man! We already have that crap on the ground. We had about 6" on Friday and Saturday. It blows.

MM

aaaaaaahhhh..... quit your blubering! We have 14" here with 3' drifts everywhere.
[:p][;)]

greg V
http://ghmyc.org/

When I have had to add lead to a finished boat (up in front of the compression strut is a good example) I line the area with aluminum foil so that it conforms to the void to be filled with lead. Then pour plaster of Paris into to the aluminum foil. The resulting plaster plug is removed and a sand casting made from it. That is the exact mold needed to cast the new lead ballast addition. The advantages are: exact fit, a lead addition that can be reduced before permanent installation, should it be to heavy, no need for a tank or snow drift during the pour, and no chance of pouring molten lead through an other wise sound hull. Don’t forget to put a Popsicle stick in the plaster of Paris plug. It is just easier to have a handle on the plug.

Ah Snow, what is that stuff again, I think I can see some on the distant mountains occasionally. Mind you, 27 Celsius here yesterday. Bugger, summer is here!![:D]

Chris
NZL1 Longtack

Chris,
Whatever process you use should begin after some thought what the trim of the boat will be when completed. If I am reading this right, you have about 4 pounds of lead to add for a 42.5" water line. That is a lot on a 31/28" fulcrum. To my mind the EC12 needs to be running on her lines when under power...that is level to +.1 degrees bow up.

You can simulate added weight for a tank test like we did on the site. Multiple ballast sections give you the flexibility to adjust, not only the weight but location. It can be done with the gear and deck installed.

My guess is with that heavy of a deck removed the boat she will be bow down with nothing in it. I would do nothing permenant till you have good references as to were the added ballast would be installed.

It is not exactly in San Francisco, but eat you heart out, Greg V.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've completed the installation of the deck substructure, and will borrow Sir Francis' water tank for the actual installation and trimming of where the weight will end up.

Chris

Search the McMaster-Carr website for lead. They have lead available in shapes and sheets. http://www.mcmaster.com

We needed to add more ballast to Doug's boat so we used a piece of 1&1/2" brass plumbing pipe held in wide jaw vise grip pliers. We preheated the pipe and poured the from a cast iron tea kettle. Before heating the lead we rehearsed the pour with the pipe and kettle cold. We should have set the hull outside for a while to chill the original pour because the new pour fused to the old for 1/2" since it was room temperature. We wanted to be able to remove the new lead for final close trimming. It was a bear to break that 1/2" fussion.
Chuck