Captain William Collin, Master of the barque Grimenza wrote
On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 18:01:36 -0500, "Simple Simon" scribbled thusly:

You know, when a sailor runs into a rock or other
hard object on the bottom - maybe a coral head
it is said that lead, being soft, will cushion the
blow by deforming and absorbing some of the
force thus sparing the structure of the yacht.

Bwaaahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa!

Sorry but SS is right on this one. A sharp hammer like impact imparts very
high albiet near instantanious loads that break relatively brittle materials
like glass and the glass fibers in composites. The soft lead would absorb
some of the peak load and spread the rest over a longer period of time
reducing the peak stress. That's why race bikes never use steel crash bars.

Enough to make a difference? Yer pays yer money and ....