Fixating keel balast

[kingfisher]

A friend of mine bought a 1946 steel long keeled SY. The keel was in a sorry state: the surveyor pushed a screwdriver right through at two places.

The keel has been completely removed, and a new one welded on. Lead ingots will be used for ballast.

How do you stop the lead ingots rolling from one side to the other, or worse: falling out of the keel in case of capsize ?

The previous owner/builder(?) simply poured concrete in the keel. Which is the cause of the keel problems: concrete is porous, water gets in from the bilge, and the keel rots from the inside out.

Epoxy ? GRP ? Sikaflex ?

You could always weld a lid on top of the ingots, and thus form the bottom of the bilge. But then the keel will no longer be accesible (does it have to?).


Obi-Wan
http://sirocco31.tripod.com

 

[Avalon]

Why not melt the ingots and pour the molten lead into the keel?

Phaon Reid, S/Y Avalon of Arne
www.sailingontheweb.com

 

[Guest]

You could weld a lid on and fill with clean oil. I remember dicussing this with a surveyor last year. Best of luck.

 

[vyv_cox]

Industrial and marine machinery skids and baseplates are mounted using epoxy grouts. These are exactly what is needed, 100% impervious to water, good bonding to steel and able to flow into small orifices. Try http://www.laticrete.it/uk/psp10uk.htm for a UK supplier and http://www.888epoxyit.com/epoxygrout.htm for some basic information. Or try a Google search on Epoxy grout

 

[kingfisher]

Cost ?

I just applied 5 layers of epoxy on my hull (preventive osmosis treatment), at a hideous cost. So liters of the stuff to pour in the keel must cost a more hideous amount ?

Or is this again the basic principle of "the diference between an industrial ss bolt and a marine ss bolt is the extra zero on the price tag".

Obi-Wan
http://sirocco31.tripod.com

 

[kingfisher]

Casting lead
1)is not for the light harted/inexperienced
2) fumes are poisonous
3) a sh*tl**d of work, it would seem

Obi-Wan
http://sirocco31.tripod.com

 

[vyv_cox]

Re: Cost ?

I can't imagine that it is desperately expensive, certainly not compared with Gelshield. Some of the websites are talking about mixing the epoxy with sand and spreading it relatively thick on floors, so I doubt if we are talking boating prices. This stuff is carried by some concrete boat owners for repairs, I've seen it in large containers, again, unlikely to be at International prices.

 

[ean_p]

The main requirement is to seperate the lead /steel/water and most people tend to do this by slowly filling the voids with a grp resin . capping the whole with a steel plate after is also recommended and any final voids can be filled through a plugged hole using either resin(which has a slight shrinkage) or oil. Either way you wont be going back into the keel but then why should you....