Lead Pigs/Ingots trimming ballast

Roach1948

Roach1948

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www.dallimoredesigns.nl
Looking at Dallimore's original design plans she was spec'd with 250Kilos of trimming ballast.

She never came with any inside ballast - so I suppose she never needed any, or maybe it was pinched or sold-off when whe was a boatyard wreck.

My launch day is looming, and now that I have installed a new 100 litre water tank (Port locker - I don't like tanks in bilges) and a new 50 litre fuel tank (Stbd lazarette - trying to offset water tank), a new slightly heavier engine, I wonder whether she will still float to her lines?

I think it may be prudent to have at least some trimming ballast to hand just incase she is so badly out-of-trim and sails like a pig wrecking my first sailing weekend - 250Kilos sounds a lot though - what do others think?

PS She is 22ft long, 1.2 tons iron keel and displaces 2.9 tons.
 
Yes, reckon you will want some; bet you it was nicked during her "derelict" period.

Sackers, near Ipswich, are suppliers of lead pigs.
 
What about 50 kg for starters, on the starboard side to balance the difference in weight between fuel and water tanks, and then give her a go? You can always buy more later if you need it. You've worked so hard and so long on the restoration the first couple of sails will feel marvellous even if she's not perfectly trimmed..
you can then fine tune the ballast as you go along. My boat, at 10.5 tons, had quite a list when I changed the engines for lighter ones. 175kg of ballast was more than enough to both cancel out the list and settle her to her marks.
 
50kg does not sound like much, but now on realising that Lead costs around £1.85 per kilo, I am tending to think that less lead is better!

Standard ingot sizes are approx: 55cm x 8cm x 7cm.This is too long for my bilge as I have 30cm spacing between floors. Has anybody ever cut lead - I know it is soft but could I do it at home? Would be cheaper than re-casting.

Failing that I could always go for shot, and lay it in the bilges in some sort of heavy-duty bags.
 
Before you trot out and spend a fortune on lead you might consider using sandbags until you get the weight and location sorted out.

Sashweights can usually be picked up from your local scrappy quite cheaply.
 
On the other hand, if you do go out and spend a fortune on lead, and you don't need it, you can pass your unwanted pigs on to me!

Conversely, Roach being smaller than Mirelle, you could borrow some of mine to see if they make a difference, before spending ££.

Seriously, I don't like the bags of shot idea.
 
Well many thanks for the offer. Maybe it's prudent to wait and see how she sits instead of trying to predict that now.

On the other hand the 30cm gaps between the floors seems to be the average height of a bottle of wine - I could always lay down a decent claret and see whether my trim is affected during the season...
 
I'd use sash weights or any old pig iron.
I've fished loads of sashweights out of skips. They are easy to cut to length - just mark round with an angle grinder and then drop the weight onto something solid, such as another weight.
 
Remember that on your first sail, you will already have perhaps 150 kg of trimming ballast on board in the form of the skipper and the crew - this is assuming that just two of you take her out on her maiden voyage.....
 
[ QUOTE ]
Remember that on your first sail, you will already have perhaps 150 kg of trimming ballast on board in the form of the skipper and the crew - this is assuming that just two of you take her out on her maiden voyage.....

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a mistake I made when I first launched Mariposa. She was trimmed nicely with no-one on board With two in the cockpit she was dragging her transom. Now remedied.
 
Before buying ballast I would consider stowing lots of nice heavy anchor chain and a second or third 'serious' anchor usefully somewhere on board.
 
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