Extra Ballast for an Eventide 24.

 

Ballast.  The weight to aim for is 1020lb, in total, roughly!  Would be better if all on the outside, if nothing else a deeper ballast keel will improve your sailing ability.  However fitting it inside is a good compromise.

 

How deep is the keel?  A 5" deep iron keel and you have the first 560lb version.  About 7" or 8" and it will be the 780lb version.

 

I got hold of lead pipe and sheet, cut into small bits, or like tyre balance weights, they came in small bits.....   melted it in nice smooth rounded shallow baking tins (2" deep x 9" x 12")  I found I could fit one of these on an old camping stove, both burners, and with the help of a load of old bricks round it to keep the heat in, you really have to do this in the open because of the fumes, I managed to melt lead quite quickly.   You should try tins to see how they would fit under the floorboards on the hog.  I also used a long narrow tin  (4" deep but only half filled, x 4" x 9"),  so I could fill in the gaps

 

Be careful, Hot lead is very hot!   600 degrees C.   Be ultra careful with bits of lead pipe, any water inside and it might explode.  I chopped mine up into 4" lengths with an axe, then made sure they were dry, even heating them with the blow lamp before lowering into the melting lead with tongs!  I only had one instance of spitting back, after that I was ever so careful!

 

You have to stir the lead with a old metal spoon and carefully scrape the 'Dross' off the bottom of the tin, so it rises to the top.  Amazingly the steel rubbish also floats on the top!  When all is molten, carefully skim all the rubbish off the top till you have a wobbly pan of molten silver.  ( The 'Dross' keeps the lead hot, so do not skim it off till all is melted.)  Then turn off the gas and go and put the kettle on!  10 minutes later you have a 30lb slab  (roughly) of shiny lead, (if you scraped the tin well enough!).

 

You can turn it out and start the next one!  Don't forget to drill holes in them so you can screw them down....  Do this slowly preferably with a brace and bit, you can burn out electric drills doing it!  I weighed each lump and scratched the weight on it, so I could tot it all up at the end of the day.

 

My waterline went up 4 inches with the addition of 400lb of weight. 

 

 I ended up with the tip of the transom just clear of  the water.  It depends how much weight you add....

Old Bluenose had her internal ballast for several years, then we removed the ballast keel, added a steel box full of cast iron sash window weights, set in mortar, covered the lot in epoxy and bolted it all back with longer galvanised steel bolts and loads of Sikaflex.  30 years later it is still there I believe!  The difference fitting it to the outside was even more marked than adding the ballast internally, and we thought that was good!

John