Ballast securing

[Doug Wotring]

What are the benefits and drawbacks of glassing your ballast into your hull?

[Rick West]

Glassing in the ballast leave little option for you later or the buyer of your boat. Refer to the building site for suggestions. These will be those materials that can be disolved.

[Fred Maurer]

Hi Doug, Two things come immediately to mind. First, sooner or later, unsecured ballast is going to come out of the keel and through the deck. Just give a shipper a chance, they can dislodge anything. Second I don’t even want to guess what will grow and fester around ballast that has moisture as a permanent resident environment. I glue the ballast in place, then seal it up.

[bogordoug]

I did not glass my ballast in, but used the 3m white marine glue to fasten it. Unfortunately, suffered all last season with a leaking hull. Turns out the leak was coming from under the ballast and the leak was from a place where the hull sections were joined (the filler joining the two sides of the hull had cracked under the tape inside the hull). It has been somewhat of a nightmare to repair the leak (a lot of grinding gel coat, fiber glass tape, sealing, bondo, sanding and paint).

I would have been much easier if I could have remove my ballast to get at the tape on the inside of the hull.

Doug Hale

[DBrawner]

I always have glassed the ballast into the boat. I apply a bed of thickened resin along the keel and plant the ballast. When that cures, I cover the ballast with a layer of glass. The idea of removing a cast ballast later is foreign to me. It's my opinion that it's easier to start with a new hull than it is to remove a deck and ballast.

DB

[Skip Quinn]

Hi Doug. I used silicone and just went around the edge of the lead. It stays and if I need to take it out, just cut the silicone. Skip[8D]

Skip

[MichaelJ2K]

My Ozmun hull has a long pour that was covered with a layer of glass cloth. I don't even want to think about moving it out of there!