Blowiñg ballast! IF Boats in particular...

[Zagato]

I must start by saying I have not heard of such an issue on IF Boats!

Boats were not originally designed to last 40 odd years so this is not a critism but having had ballast become rusty, blow and crack out through the GRP on a Drascombe Drifters bilge keels I am very wary of ballast made from steel punchings instead of lead. Shrimpers have the same issue ultimately expanding so much you cannot drop the centre plate.

The problem lies with the fact that moisture and condensation will eventually attack the steel punchings making it rust. Steel punchings were commonly used as they were cheap, although probably rusting from the outset prior to being mixed with resin and ash. The ash is put in to slow the drying of the resin to prevent it cracking. It did not always work. On my Cornish Crabber the long keel was filled from the top with such ballast and had cracked. You could see this from the top as it was not fully encapsulated. Imagine sea water pouring over that lot which happened to mine which was one reason I sold it!

I am currently looking at Folkboats and IF Boats. Nordic Folkboats are fine as the ballast is bolted on but what about IF Boats... does anyone know what their ballast is made of. It would not be lead sadly I am sure. Having had to pay out to repair bilge keels that have blown and would continue to after localised repairs as sea water got in, if the ballast was blowing on a whole encapsulated long keel on something like a cheap IF Boat, it would simply not be worth replacing all that surely. It wouldn',t stop me buying a 6K IF Boat but wondered if anyone else has had any experience of the issue.

You have to pay to use the IF boat forum and I am too tight to ask just one question ?

 

[Zagato]

Found the answer! The Marieholm IF Boat uses 1250 KG of cast iron ballast... 58% of total weight or maybe that means total hull weight ratio, anyway it is much better than steel punchings! 3500 of the IF Boats were made and you can still buy a new one today. They have a good racing scene and numerous supporting associations. Small, light, trailerable, outboard engine... I would like one as my final boat

 

[Keith 66]

Any boat with shot punching s ballast could potentially have this problem. They used to do keels this way on Snapdragons at Thames marine, some of their keels bulged quite alarmingly & i could point out two locally that are like this. It also could happen when the boat was relatively young in years. This was due to too much catalyst being used & a high build up of styrene. I fact one bloke I knew actually got injured working on one, he was asked to recify the bulge on the keel & cut into it with a diamond wheel on a grinder. As he broke through the sparks from the ballast ignited a pressurised build up of styrene gas & a jet of flame shot out of the side of the keel.
He sustained quite impressive flash burns.

 

[Zagato]

Interesting thanks Keith, not the best product to use from the start then... but discarded factory steel punchings were probably free, although rusting already!

I have found a picture of the cast iron block simply lowered into the keel of an IF Boat which is all good. Hopefully next year I should be in a position to buy one... need to finish off the old SAAB first and build another garage for it and my lift! SAAB 96's came in orange and lime green, it would be nice get an orange hulled one or maybe spray the hull lime green (Opal Green) to match my SAAB, sad eh!